Angel's Lullaby
by stAnd out - SHOUT OUT
Summary: Redemption can come in all forms, living, nonliving, human, demon, a person or an event. Even for a vampire, the gods may show mercy. Even for someone that is solely alone in their uniqueness, there is always another to balance out the scale. Angel/OC
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Angel looked at Buffy with dark eyes, unable to believe the pure selfishness of all that she was saying and doing. She only thought of herself, what Faith had done to her and not of the fact that Faith was trying to get better, that she had voluntarily given herself over to the police. Buffy didn't consider any of that; she was far too hung up on her own problems with the other slayer to care.

"I have someone in my life now," Buffy said suddenly, throwing the conversation for a whole new turn. But it wasn't anything new for him to hear, Faith had already let slip that she had moved on earlier that night. He wasn't surprised to hear that Buffy had found another man, nor was he as hurt as he had thought he would be. "That I love. It's not what you and I had, it's very new. You know what makes it new?"

Angel refused to look at her as she stepped up toward him, feeling the heat that radiated off her warm skin. He always missed the warmth; it was one of the things that he craved the most from the brief contact that she shared with the humans in his life. Warmth.

"I trust him," She sneered, the look making her face look gruesome. "I know him."

"That's great," Angel scoffed finally, looking over to her. He felt the need to get back at her, get revenge for the pain that she was deliberately causing him in that moment. She knew that his love, his happiness, could turn him into a monster and she didn't care. She was rubbing her happiness in his face. His eyes moved over to the stairs that led down to the main floor when he heard someone coming up them, the familiar light footfalls catching his attention. A head of bright red blonde hair appeared a moment later, eyes turning in his direction. "It's nice you moved on. So have I."

Buffy flinched back at his words, not having expected to hear them. Angel didn't know whether it was right to feel glad that he had received that reaction from her. The redhead that was coming up the stairs clearly heard their conversation, her blue eyes softening as she looked into Angel's dark brown ones. Buffy noticed that he was looking off at something and turned around, immediately taking note of the woman standing at the top of the stairs.

Her hair reached near mid back in natural large curls, her large blue eyes surrounded by dark makeup that made the colour stand out more. She wasn't wearing lip gloss as most women were these days, but instead a neutral lipstick that made her pale skin stand out more. She was tall, probably only an inch shorter than Angel was, and was wearing a pair of black jeans with a red halter top and leather jacket with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. She looked unreal. Unearthly.

"You found someone new, so have I," Angel continued, seeing the look that came to the red haired woman's face. She did not enjoy being in the slayers presence.

And it was not because she was a demon.

"I think it's time you left, Buffy," Wesley said as he approached the group. Buffy couldn't draw her eyes away from the woman at the top of the stairs, trying to comprehend just what was so special about her that she was able to be with Angel. If Angel loved her, how was he still Angel, not Angelus?

"I want answers," She said firmly, looking over to Angel again.

"You can't just come down here with your great new life and expect me to do things your way!" Angel yelled suddenly, causing the woman to step forward but stopped when Wesley held up a hand to signal her to stay where she was. She looked worried about Angel, her strange blue eyes watching him and Buffy carefully. "Go home."

Without another word Buffy moved around Angel to collect her coat, finally taking her shocked, hurt eyes off of him. Angel moved passed her to face the stairs, leaning on the railing. The woman stayed where she was, her eyes on Buffy. The blonde didn't look happy when she met those blue eyes, she wanted her answers and she was deprived of them.

"See?" She finally asked quietly, "Faith wins again."

Turning to move down the stairs, she gasped and jumped when the woman was suddenly standing before her, on the first step down. She was still slightly taller than Buffy even with the lower level. Her blue eyes were set in a glare, irritation swirling in their depths.

"Faith didn't win anything. She's locked away in a cell right now, unsure of the fate that she will be forced to live out. She didn't win. You just lost." Her voice like was music, soft in tone but strong and powerful, hypnotizing to the senses. She stepped around Buffy before the blonde had time to react, moving over to where Angel was.

"Go, Buffy."


	2. Devil's Dance

**Devil's Dance**

Angel woke groggily, but alert and in a panic. He rose up to sit where he was, his eyes darting around the space that he was trapped in. Bars caged him in, separating him from where other demons were sitting around. There was another demon in the cell with him, one that he did not recognize. He had never run into this particular breed demon before. He looked down when he felt a weight on his wrist, noticing immediately the silver band that was placed there. It held roman numbers on it, etched into the surface on the top of his wrist. He fiddled with the device for but a moment, trying to find a way that he could pry it off. It seemed that it was a device that was made through magic.

Someone had taken his coat and shirt from him while he was unconscious, leaving him in his white wife beater. The chill in the room didn't bother his skin, he was colder than the air was. The groaning from the demon trapped in the cell with him drew his attention eventually, making him look to them.

"I asked for a room with a view," he said first, trying to break the tension in the cell. It wouldn't do to have a pissed off demon locked in a small space with him. The other male looked over to him, but didn't say anything toward Angel's efforts. "I'm guessing English is not your native tongue?" he asked, not expecting an answer. Nor were Spanish, Belarusian, or Italian. Eventually, the other demon just looked away and ignored him. "We'll have so much to talk about during the long winter nights," he mumbled to himself as he pulled his still sore body up from the ground, using the bars for support.

"Listen up, slaves!" Jack yelled as he walked into the room, decked out in a leather jacket with his long hair pulled back. The demons around the room all turned their attention to him obediently. He stopped a few feet before Angel's cell, looking in on the vampire. "There's only one rule here and it's real simple so you demons can remember," he said as he motioned to another man in the room and the door to Angel cell opened at the demand.

Angel stepped out, approaching Jack with quick strides, but he held up a hand to stop him before pointing down at the ground. There was a thick red line painted on the ground, separating the two.

"Stay inside the red. That wristband'll make sure you do." He grinned at Angel from over the red line, under the belief that he was invincible. "I know you want to rip my throat out, but you won't; because there's only one way out of here. When that band comes off, and the only way that band comes off is after your twenty first kill." Silence fell over the room as all of the other demons watched the exchange, their eyes on the newcomer. No one paid any attention to the one person stowed away in the corner of the room, ignoring it all.

"I'm not killing anyone," Angel said evenly, challengingly.

"Then you'll be killed. Either way, fans'll get their money's worth," Jack said with one last grin before he turned around to leave through the way that he'd come. "Prepare yourself, Siren. Show's about to start." The comment was directed to the figure in the corner, Angel's eyes finally moving over to where he was.

Bright blue eyes shone through the shadows like illuminated spheres, watching as the man in the leather jacket stepped out of the room smugly, acting as though he owned the word. He would get what was coming to him, he would learn that very soon.

Once he had left the demons in the room seemed to relax, moving back to their own places and acting as though it were routine for him to show up as he had. The figure in the corner never moved from his place, hidden away in the shadows as glowing eyes watched the door across the way. It almost looked like they were a caged animal, ready to pounce. Angel couldn't see anything about him, what kind of demon he was, how tall he was or if he was a fighter or not.

Angel didn't try to converse with the other demons in the space, only leaned up against the cold metal bars of the cell he had woken up in and watched the other demons carefully. There were always men that worked for Jack and his brother hanging around, holding the electric shock weapons that they had used to subdue him in the first place.

"Come on, Siren, come hang with the big boys," one of the demons drawled out after a while, sitting at a bench and leaning his elbows on his knees. He sneered at the shadowed figure, who glanced his way before returning all attention to the doorway again. "Suppers almost here, how about I give ya some a' my cut?" The lizard demon asked, cocking his head to the side.

"You're wasting your time," one of the other men grumbled out, his voice gruff from lack of speaking. Angel watched the interaction, looking over to the man in the corner. "Never moved for you before."

The lizard demon growled in irritation and rose to his feet, marching over to where the figure crouched. Bright blue eyes snapped in his direction, watching as he approached. Angel pushed away from the bars but one of the demons near him held out a hand to stop him, leaving him to watch as the lizard stopped before the other figure, looking down at the man.

"You ignorin' me?" He asked venomously, looking down at them. When they continued to remain silent, he reached down to grab at them harshly, barely making contact before a hand shot out and connected with his chest, palm flat, and pushed him away with unbelievable strength. The silver band was on their wrist, too. The lizard demon skidding back several yards until he was at Angel's feet, looking angered beyond belief.

Demons around the room stepped back when the figure rose to their feet, threatening blue eyes glaring down at the man on the ground. The guards around the room didn't make a move to stop the oncoming fight, just watching from their places with amused stares. Angel understood why when the figure finally stepped out of the darkness.

It was not a he.

Full black attire of a tank top and pants contrasted sharply against already pale skin, the fiery red blond hair of a woman pulled away from a defined, thin face. He was struck. There was a woman here as well? Clearly she was a demon, with the strength that she was able to possess in one push of her hand against the man's chest. Her eyes lost the glow when she stepped into the light, but they were still unearthly, inhuman.

"Shut up."

All noise ceased inside the room, Angel's hearing straining for sound. It was as though the command had made even the particles in the air freeze in place. His eyes fell on the thick silver band that clasped around her throat, the same roman numerals there as well. Was she so powerful? She needed two bands to keep her detained?

"You insufferable brat, do you ever cease that irritating sound that comes from your mouth? I am tired of listening to you. Do not speak to me again!" She yelled out, her eye flashing bright one more time. Angel heard an undignified squeak come from the male at his feet before the room fell silent once more. No one had to wait long before the silence was broken as some men came into the room with the meal of the night.

Angel was surprised, to put it lightly, so see a woman there. Although, with the way that she had taken care of the lizard demon he was certain that she could hold her weight against the other demons when in the ring. Killing one, however, he wasn't so sure. He had been acutely aware that she had directed him away from her so that he didn't move over the red line.

A bowl of food was pushed over the line for her to take, but she simply walked back over to her corner and sat down, a curl of red hair falling before her eyes as she glared over at the men in extreme hate. Was she a Siren? He couldn't help but wonder. He had seen Siren's in books before, but none of them looked the way that she did. She was beautiful and had a human appearance, while the Siren's that he had seen were sharp toothed, black eyed, flesh eating demons that felt nothing but the lust for blood and flesh of a male. Was it only a nickname given to her, Siren?

She was not a Siren, not one that he had ever heard about. He could see the pain in her eyes, her posture, as she slipped down to sit on the floor again, leaning back against the cold walls.

"Siren!" Jack yelled suddenly as he stepped out, "Time to warm up the fans, baby doll."

The woman rose to her feet obediently, glaring at Jack with death in her eyes. He just smirked back at her lecherously, his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he watched her walk.

One of the guards made the poor judgement to reach over the red line, wishing to be discrete, and make a grab at her ass. She spun around faster than anyone could see, her hand gripping his wrist and pulling him over the line. Her other hand rose up to his face, her palm covering his mouth.

Before the other guards could subdue her, her eyes lightened into an entirely different blue shade. The man gasped against her palm but wasn't able to pull away, looking into the hypnotic eyes of the demon draining his energy from him. His body started to convulse before one of the other guards jabbed Siren in the back of the neck with their electric rod, sending her to her knees with a hiss of pain. The guard was released, falling back over the line. He moved no more. Neither did she.

"How many fucking times do I have to warn you idiots?" Jack demanded as he threw his arms up in aggravation. "Someone get rid of him, before he starts stinkin' up the place." He turned to leave, looking pissed beyond all get out. "And lock her ass in a cell!"

Siren awoke to pain, lying on her back on the floor of the cell that had been deemed as her own. She looked over to where there were other demons, all sitting about. The newest one wasn't there, nor was the kid. They must have lost their fights that night. She groaned silently in pain when she moved to rise up from the ground, her abused body protesting the movement. It was clear that they had punished her when she was placed inside her cell.

"Sleeping beauty's finally awake."

"I thought I told you to shut up," she growled out, pulling herself up with the bars and onto the bench in the cell.

"Hm, always were cranky when you didn't get your beauty sleep. Pity."

"Fuck you."

The loud sounds of the doors opening down the hall caused eyes to direct that way instead, Siren rising to her feet. Had they caught someone new? She stepped up to the bars of her cell, looking out and ignoring the pain that ebbed through her body. It was so hard to heal when there was no energy within her to enable her body to do so.

Imagine the surprise she felt when the vampire, Angel was his name, moved through the large entrance way and over across the line of red that held them all in place. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side curiously, wondering. What sort of man was he? Had he been free somehow? Why would he have come back? For the others? No, that could not be it.

The wristband snapped back into place, sealing the vampire's fate along with it.

She looked up only when her cell door opened, leaving her curious. What was going to happen tonight? The stirrings of energy and power sparked in the air, teasing her skin with the feel of it but leaving her desperate for the actual thing. That taste of strength she had received from the human male was hardly enough to give her the energy to stand. She needed demon power.

Angel looked back at her once the others were gone, catching a light in her eye that had nothing to do with the reason for the previous times. She nodded her head at him, a silent agreement to what she knew that he was going to try. She would help him in whatever way she could to free them all. He inclined his head in a type of bow in thanks.

"Let's try this again, Siren," one of the men said as they moved along the red line, directing her over to the door and away from her cell. She looked back at Angel one last time before she moved over to the doors that led out to the Ring. This was her job.

The crowd around the ring cheered out loudly as the announcer took the mic in his hands, looking around at all the different faces.

"I present to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, the ever alluring, lustrous _Siren!_" The sound picked up in the room as the female walked out through the doors, her eyes glowing as she concentrated on the energies of the humans in the room. "And her partner for this evening," The announcer continued, watching Siren as she walked around him slowly, the deliberate sway of her hips drawing his gaze against his will. "Crib!"

The green skinned lizard demon stepped out through the doors next, a scowl set in place as he looked around at the spectators. The announcer made himself scarce from the ring, leaving Siren and Crib in the circular arena together. She watched him carefully as she moved to lean against the wall opposite the doors. He always made the first more.

Crib darted forward as expected, charging at her with speed that could be considered impressive to humans, but it was nothing to her. She pushing away from the wall, pressing a boot against his chest, pushed off of him before using the wall to jump over him as he fell to the ground. The movements were nearly too quick for the spectators to follow. They cheered anyway.

Crib was quick to his feet again, glaring at her with death in his eyes. She grinned in a sultry way, swaying her body from side to side as she locked her gaze with his. She knew the immediate second that she had his attention and quickly spun on one foot, the other rising over her head and down to take him across the face, throwing him into the ground. She spun back to face him once she was up again, noticing that she had knocked him out.

As always.

She smiled cruelly up at the crowd, knowing exactly what was expected of her. She swayed her hips in a silent dance, no music to go by, and swung her head to throw her long red hair around herself. The curls bounced and wound around themselves, falling over her face when she looked up to where the suits were watching. She grinned like a masochist, her eyes lightening before she turned toward the doors to head back inside. Once she was shadowed again, someone moving out to get Crib and dump him inside, she let herself fall neutral again.

To them, she was simply a show dog.

**Chapter two is finally up! And Angel meet's the mystery woman, too! I'll have the next one out soon; I just need to edit it. Please review! I love feedback, it gives me motivation to keep writing! :)**


	3. Stripped Bare

**Stripped Bare**

Siren sat on one of the tables that were in the room, listening to the crowd as they roared with excitement, the fight between Angel and Tripcose already underway. She glared down at the ground, knowing that there was no way they'd both walk away from that fight alive. The crowd was louder than she had ever heard them, knowing that Angel—the new flavour—was going to be Tripcose's twenty first kill.

Manoeuvring her body, she laid herself out on the table as she tried to think. There was no way that she'd be able to get over the red line with two of the bands on and the last time when she was only wearing one she had been at full strength, taking the life of her first kill by draining all of their energy. There wasn't much chance that she'd get a chance to do that again. They monitor her too closely now.

"Excuse me, pst, come here," A male voice whispered. Siren's eyebrow twitched in curiosity as she lifted her head, seeing Crib making his way over toward where a man was poking his head through the bars of their cage. He looked like one of the men from the audience, dressed sharply in a black suit.

She kept where she was but listened carefully to what the man might want, probably hoping to rig a fight or something. It wouldn't have been the first time.

"I need to see Angel," The man whispered, catching her attention completely. She looked over to where Crib was standing before him, seeing the human man making motions as he described how tall Angel was.

"Yea, he's dead," Crib answered immediately, the stricken look coming to the man's face and the outrush of sadness and remorse that erupted from him nearly making Siren sick. She pulled herself off the table and brushed her pants, ready to beat down on Crib. Angel was still alive, for how long was still unclear.

"Dead?"

"In about twenty seconds he will be. He's fighting Tripcose and who da hell are you?" Crib demanded finally, looking irritated at the interference. There was no point in the man being there. Crib didn't like Angel, of course he wouldn't like those that were friends of Angel's.

"I'm a friend. Look, perhaps we could help each other. I have a key," the man said as he began to dig around in his coat pocket, Crib's attention solely on the man on the other side of the bars. He didn't even notice Siren crouching on the table, completely ready to pounce on him should be try anything. Crib would probably free himself and run. He pulled out a metal rob, maybe as thick as her pinkie finger and twelve inches long. Before he could say much more, Crib used his tongue to snatch the instrument away.

"Give that back!"

"Planning on running now?" Siren asked as she looked at Crib. The male turned in her direction, noticing the lethal position that she was in. He didn't answer her, but instead lifted the instrument that he had taken to his wrist, pressing the tip just light against the bracelet. With an electric pulse, it sprung open and fell to the floor with a clatter. Siren leaned forward slightly, placing a hand on the table to prepare to spring at him.

"Whoa there girly," he said quickly when he saw the change, holding up his hands. She glared at him with bright blue eyes, challenging him to just try and stop her.

"_Angel, Angel, Angel,_" chanted from the ring, reaching their ears. Crib moved over to the crowd of Demons that were watching through the small windows at the base of the ring, looking in. Siren ran after him, pushing aside two men that were in her way. Angel had Tripcose on his back, the point of a broken speak against his neck. The crowd was chanting for him, urging him on to finish with Tripcose, take his life.

He threw the wooden stake aside, turning his back on Tripcose. Siren looked over to the shock on Crib's face as he watched as Angel gave the man life, refusing to kill him. He truly would die before he killed another man in that ring. She grabbed onto Crib's arm and spun him to face her, her hands burning at his skin with the dire need for energy.

"Give me that damned key, you bastard."

The crowd's chant changed when Tripcose began a renewed assault on Angel, using his fists to beat the afterlife from the vampire. Crib looked between her and the ring, knowing that he would die in there or at the hands of the upset demon that was branding his skin. He growled in irritation before he grabbed her wrist and pressed the tip of the rod against it, the band snapping open. The other demons all looked over at the sight of it falling away, soon rushing forward.

"Stop!" Siren yelled, all movement ceasing. "You'll get your band removed, but you have to take this fighting ring down," she growled out, seeing the sneers of pleasure that came to the men's faces at the thought of killing those men that had locked them down in the hell hole. Metal bracelets released and fell to the ground, clattering loudly. Siren jumped away from them and moved over to the door, looking in through the grate beside it.

Tripcose had stepped back.

Angel fell to the floor as the wounds that he had received took effect, weakening him too much. She could see the large stain of blood on his stomach where he must have been stabbed with the spear. It was a good thing Tripcose hadn't gotten to his heart. She looked back when she heard the other men quieting, the sound of dropping metal ceasing.

"Let's just end this bullshit already," Crib growled out from behind her, getting a sadistic grin from the woman before him that had all of the men wondering what it would have been like to fight in the ring with her for life or death. She had never been allowed to kill after her first, she was meant only to spark the crowd's interest before the matches began.

"Both of them!" A male yelled from outside the doors, the guards moving away on the outside. Siren's head snapped back in the direction of the doors before her hands hit against the heavy metal, pushing it open with a slight amount of work and charging out, the others rushing after her as they yelled in outrage.

Spinning fluently, Siren's boot connected with the jaw of one of the guards, sending him to the side as he dropped his weapon and fell unconscious against the wall. One of the guards made for Angel on the ground, but had barely even the time to activate the electric shock before a hand gripped onto his neck and he suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious.

Angel looked up in surprise at the sight of Siren standing above him, one hand still raised from where it had grabbed the back of the man's neck.

Crib appeared beside her, kneeling down and taking hold of Angel's wrist. He mumbled out a 'loser' as he was releasing the band, letting it fall to the floor with a clatter. The demons were quickly making their way from the ring after they had exacted the revenge they sought, killing many of the guards and some of the spectators.

She looked over at the sound of someone falling into the pit, seeing that it was the man in the suit, the brother to Jack, that had been pushed inside. He was holding out a gun at Tripcose, cursing him as a slave. He circled around Tripcose, making the mistake to ignore the other three in the ring as well.

"You had your twenty one, then you had to go and ruin it for everybody else," he mocked loudly, holding the gun up at the demon. Siren kicked out a foot to knock the gun up into the air, flying out of his hands and a shot missing Tripcose by a couple of feet. Crib took hold of his wrist and snapped on the band that had fallen off of Angel's, sealing it.

"Tripcose," Crib said as he looked over to the other demon, pushing the large man away and over to him. "Catch." Tripcose didn't hesitate to take hold of the man before hefting him up and throwing him into the air, over the railing that held the red caution on it. With electric bright lights, dust flew through the air where the man had once been. Siren wrinkled her nose at it, the stench of burnt human flesh filling the room.

She couldn't stop herself from feeling free, relaxed, at the thought of him finally being gone.

She looked over to Angel in time to see him stumble and moved over to let him fall against her, wrapping on arm around his back as her hand moved to the injury in the side of his stomach. It was definitely a stab from the wood. Using the energy that she had taken from the guard, she placed her palm over the injury and pressed down, getting a hiss of pain from Angel.

He tried to move away from the pressing hand on his injury, not sure why she was doing it. She knew he was a vampire, she knew that he would heal. The pain and discomfort only lasted a moment, however, before there was a sharp burn and then nothing. He blinked in surprise as he looked down at her, seeing that her blue eyes were glowing as she concentrated on his stab wound.

"It was a good fight," Tripcose said as he came up to Angel, clapping him on the back. Siren's hand fell away, showing the hole in his bloody shirt and the perfect skin beneath. No injury lingered behind. He looked at her with shock, but she just smiled faintly. Crib stepped up to her and tapped the metal rod against the band around her neck, letting it fall open and clatter to the ground.

Angel was soon supported by Cordelia and Wesley, leaning on them heavily as they walked him from the building. The other demons were still filing out, rushing off into the night as soon as they were free from the prison they were put it. They watched as one group rushed off out of the area, looking back a couple of times toward Angel and his friends.

"I find it very curious that there was a woman down there. I have never heard of them putting women into fights," Wesley commented as he looked at Angel, seeing the fatigue on the man's face.

"I wasn't really one of their contestants."

All three turned around so quickly that Cordelia nearly tripped in her shoes. The woman stood a couple of yards back, closer to the entrance of the building where she had exited behind them. Angel noticed the weariness in her own eyes, as well as the drop of her shoulders and that she was favouring one leg over the other. She was hurt and tired, just like he was.

"You healed me," Angel mumbled out, still unsure of how to take in that part. He had only ever known for one demon to heal and that was when its blood turned him human for a day.

"Your friends saved all of our lives," she replied back, smiling softly. She was a different person outside of the building. He didn't even know how long she had been down there. Long enough to learn the routine.

Angel pushed away from Cordelia and Wesley when he saw her stumble in her place, her legs refusing to keep her upright. She winced in pain as her hand moved down to her stomach as though covering an injury, the _exact_ place that he had been stabbed. He wrapped an arm around her torso, letting her lean on him to regain herself. Before she had a chance to protest, he had moved her shirt up to reveal _his _injury on _her_ stomach.

"That's how you did it," he mumbled to himself, letting her shirt fall down again. "Wesley, got get the car," Angel demanded. The other man nodded and quickly rushed off with Cordelia in tow, not wanting to be left behind to stand there awkwardly. Angel looked down at the woman that was leaning against him, a complete mystery. "What are you? A Siren?"

"In a sense," she mumbled back, turning those strange eyes to him. "Although, the meaning and description behind the name has changed much since I was born. I hear that you…you are a vampire with a soul?" Angel stood still, frozen, before he nodded his head in answer. She smiled, though, and nodded her head back in understanding. "Looks like we're both alone out here, huh?"

Angel knew that she did not mean that they were alone in the alley.


	4. Steal Your Pain

**Steal Your Pain**

Angel rummaged through his closet, trying to find a change of clothes that were small enough to fit his temporary guest. He could hear her hisses of pain as Wesley checked over the injury, marvelling at how she was able to transfer Angel's wound, while minimalizing the damage, onto her own person. He eventually took an airtight bandage from the first aid kit and placed it over the disinfected area, saying that she could even shower with the bandage on.

"It'll be gone before morning," she tried to assure, but was hushed. "You are bursting with curiosity." She wore a faint smile that touched her lips as she watched Wesley fidget causing Cordelia to snort in laughter, wondering what was wrong with the man that time.

Wesley stuttered at her words, however, looking at her with wide eyes. "H-how did you know that?"

"Aside from the fact that you've been playing with your hands and staring at my side as though it was going to start singing?" she asked in amusement, causing Cordelia to outright laugh that time. "I can feel your emotions; they are in your energy. That's how I was able to help Angel. I swapped some of my energy with his, taking his pain as my own and giving him some of my strength as replacement."

"Wow, that's really cool and really creepy," Cordelia said as she pulled up a chair next to the couch that the other two were sitting on.

"Look, Siren-"

"Desiree," she interrupted smoothly, keeping her eyes on Wesley's face as he look baffled by being cut off so suddenly.

"Pardon?" He asked, drawing his hands into his lap and looking at her in confusion.

"Her name's Desiree," Angel answered for her as he emerged from the closet, carrying with him some clothes. "They're going to be big on you, but it's something clean to wear. You can go and shower in there if you'd like." He motioned over to the door that directed toward the bathroom off of his bedroom. She smiled her thanks and accepted the clothes form him, rising to her feet.

"Careful with your side, you may heal fast but you're still injured," Wesley called in direction as she walked away, getting a quick nod in reply before she disappeared into the room. The three occupants were quiet for a time as they looked at the bathroom door, hearing when the shower started a couple moments later.

"What is she?" Cordelia asked bluntly after a moment, the first to break the silence.

"I'm not sure," Wesley replied, his tone and face turning serious. "Did you find out anything while you two were under?"

"No, all I know it that she's really strong, she was called Siren and what she told you guys earlier. I never saw her actually fight so I don't know what she's able to do. She killed one of the guards, though. It looked like she drained the life out of him just by touching him." Cordelia shuddered visibly at the image that came to mind.

Was it wrong to keep from them that she had told him she wasn't a Siren 'in a sense' and she was 'alone'?

"Maybe we could use that _Demons, Demons, Demons_ website thingy," Cordelia offered, looking excitedly over to the two men. "I mean, she doesn't look like a demon exactly, but there are things that we could use. I mean, there's no way that she could be that tall and normal. And her eyes! I love her eyes, actually-"

"She can hear you, Cordelia," Angel warned, knowing that she was probably listening to their entire conversation. The other woman looked dumbstruck for a moment, looking at him with wide eyes before scowling and making her way over to the elevator, no doubt going to look up the demon that was presently in Angel's shower.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Angel?" Wesley asked in a hushed tone, unsure of whether or not she could hear him at the reduced volume.

"She deliberately hurt herself to take my pain away. I don't see why someone would do that if they could very easily have just killed me when I was weak," he answered back in an even tone. Wesley still didn't look convinced, but he also respected what Angel was saying and his decision and rose to stand, patting the vampire on the shoulder once before he departed as well, leaving to make sure that Cordelia didn't get herself into trouble while rummaging through demon sites.

Angel moved over to sit on the couch once he was alone, the sound of the shower the only noise in the apartment. He couldn't hear Desiree as she was moving around in the shower, the only proof that she was inside was the sound of the water splashing on the ground whenever she rung out her hair or shifted her body out from underneath the spray.

It was true that he was taking a great risk with trusting her, especially after what had happened with their most recent client that had put Angel in that fighting ring in the first place. Although, if he hadn't been put in there he never would have known about it and had the chance to free the locked up demons, saving many more from getting killed in the future.

His attention was diverted from the ring, however, when he heard the shower turn off. Even though he knew that she was moving around he could barely hear her. Her footfalls were ghostly silent, those of someone who had always been light on their feet. He wondered if it was a natural trait or a learned one. Did she have a reason to go about unnoticed?

He stood up to greet her when she finally emerged from the small bathroom, her long red hair pulled back away from her face and twisted around before falling over one shoulder. The black shirt that she was wearing was far too large for her, the sleeves rolled up slightly so that they reached her wrists and left her hands free. The shorts were the same, hanging down past her knees when they were meant to stay above.

"Sorry about the sizes," he mumbled at the sight of her, feeling the stirrings of attraction. The dirt and sweat was gone now, leaving her porcelain skin clean and unblemished. She looked like someone carved from marble. Maybe she was a Siren, born to attract the opposite sex.

"It's like you said, it's something clean to wear." She actually looked sheepish as she tugged awkwardly on the sleeve of his shirt, looking to the ground and licking at her lips. Angel continued to look at her for a moment, wondering why she was suddenly so shy and awkward when it occurred to him that she must have been waiting for him to say something.

"Oh! Uhm, you can have the bed and I'll take the couch," he said in a rush, trying to correct himself quickly. "I'm gunna go and grab a quick shower. There might be some food in the kitchen if you're hungry, but I don't really eat, so…" he rambled out, motioning back toward the kitchen as he looked away from her at last. "I'm sorry."

When he looked back to her she was smiling at him, revealing a dimple on her right cheek. The dark makeup had mostly been washed away from around her eyes, giving them a more natural look and toning down the intensity of them just slightly. "I'll be okay. I think that all I need right now is to sleep, but I don't need the bed-"

"I insist," he interrupted right away, causing her to laugh softly. Even the sound of her laugh was magical.

"Alright, if you insist," she agreed as she raised her hands in surrender, turning around to make her way toward the bedroom area. She glanced back at him when he made his way over toward the bathroom door, grasping the thick duvet in her hand to pull back. Without lingering longer, he slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Desiree had folded up her clothes and placed them on one of the unused shelves he had. It looked like she had dusted them off, probably in the shower since there was no dirt on the floor, before she folded them away with the intent to wear them again the next day. She was neat, that much was obvious.

He was quick to shower, letting the hot water wash away the blood and dirt that covered his body from the fights in the ring and numerous times he had been electrocuted. Even though he was dead, his body felt much more relaxed under the hot water, letting it wash away _everything._ He was nearly reluctant to leave the spray, but felt that he had used up enough water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist as the cold air of the apartment assaulted his wet skin.

Desiree must have been freezing. She was very good at hiding it, however, if she had been.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, looking out into the bedroom. She had left a light on, probably for his sake, but was already curled up under the duvet. He could hear her even breathing, but with her it was unclear of whether or not she was actually sleeping. He didn't linger in place long before he moved over to the closet to get a change of clothes for himself, preparing for a night on the couch.

At least she was better mannered than Cordelia. He didn't think he could stand the thought of someone else getting peanut butter on his sheets and then blaming it on a _vampire. _Desiree seemed too shy in someone else's home to be as rude as to eat in his bed.

Moving out of his closet after he had pulled on his robe, he took one last look at where she was lying on her side, her fiery hair thrown about the pillow. It was still damp, but the colour began to lighten more and more as it dried. Although she looked human, there were attributes to her that were just too strange to be human. Even if he hadn't seen her throw a man across a room with one hand he would still take the assumption that she was a demon nearly immediately.

The smell that came off her of was one of the first things that he would notice.

Pheromones.


	5. Marble

**Marble**

Angel woke on the couch as the day rolled in, noon approaching quickly. His could feel all of his aches and pains from the ring had healed themselves overnight, the bag of blood he'd had before he went to sleep helping immensely. He wished that he had could have spent the night in his own bed, but he would do all he could to make sure that Desiree was confortable. At the thought of the alluring woman he came to realize that there was no heartbeat inside his apartment. He quickly rose to his feet and moved around to his bedroom. The bed was made perfectly, as though no one had slept inside it the night before. Her scent still lingered in the air, however, so he knew that she had been there.

Looking into the bathroom proved that her clothes were no longer there as well, but instead the ones that he had given her had taken their place. That sweet scent that followed her around like a shadow lingered on the material, leaving him to force himself away.

Dressing quickly, he kept an eye out for anything out of place or if she had left some sort of note. She didn't seem like the kind of person to up and leave, not after last night. Using the elevator, he made his way up to the office to see if she had made her way passed Cordelia that morning on her way out. He could smell her scent in the elevator as well, much fresher than it would have been had it only been from last night.

"Cordelia," He called as soon as he entered his office, looking over toward the doorway that led out into the main area. Cordelia was sitting at her desk, typing away at the computer. She didn't acknowledge him at all, continuing to glare at the screen instead. "Cordelia?"

"This thing is useless!" She cried in outrage, throwing her hands up and finally turning to look at him. "Demons must have to be ugly and smelly in order for them to be in this thing!"

"Cordelia, have you seen Desiree?"

"In the washroom," she answered with a huff, motioning over to the door that led to a small washroom off of the office. "I brought her some clothes to wear; better than those boxers and dress shirt that you gave her. How's a woman supposed to feel good when she's in clothing three times too big?"

"I don't really make a habit of keeping women's clothes around my apartment, Cordelia," Angel explained in a plain tone, getting a look from the woman behind the front desk.

The door to the washroom opened, gaining the attention of both occupants of the room. The clothes that Cordelia had given her were not hard to realize that they were indeed hers. The top showed off her stomach and the skirt rode low on her hips. She looked like a white marble statue in modern clothes, the unblemished skin of her stomach gaining Angel's attention. He tried to mark it off as checking the stab wound—or lack thereof.

"Ah! Much better!" Cordelia cried happily, standing up from her chair and clapping her hands once. "I knew those would look good on you. I could definitely do this for a living!"

Desiree looked down at herself, unsure. She hadn't really worn clothes that showed so much for a very long time, it was slightly unsettling. Her red hair had been twisted up into a messy bun at the back of her head, several curls falling down along her exposed shoulders and collar, framing her face. She looked like she had spent hours fixing herself up, but she had only been inside that room for less than ten minutes.

"Good morning, Angel," she greeted, offering him a faint smile. "Thank you again, very much, for letting me have your bed last night. I wish that you didn't have to sleep on your own couch."

"I already told you, it's fine. There's no need for you to keep thanking me," Angel assured with a small smile in return. Cordelia looked between the two, a sense of dread rising in her. She knew the look that Angel had on his face, and it was not a good thing.

"Guess what!?" She suddenly cried out, starting the both of them into looking at her.

"Uhm, what is it, Cordelia?" Angel asked as the smile that had once been on his face was replaced with his usual blank look. She was relieved that he wasn't looking all longingly at the other demon anymore, but she was also sure that there was no way it was going to be that easy to get them away from one another. Desiree would have to go. Was it bad that she felt so guilty?

"I've got the part of that audition that I had! And, I was able to save tickets for all of you!" She smiled large as she announced this, seeing Desiree looked over at Angel in confusion before returning her bright eyes to the other woman.

"You act?"

"Good morning!" Wesley said as he joined the group, coming in through the front entrance. He paused when he saw the familiar redhead standing with Angel and Cordelia, dressed in a shirt and skirt that he was fairly certain he had seen Cordelia wear at some point. She looked over her shoulder at him, wide blue eyes catching him for a moment. "I see you're both doing better."

"There's nothing left of that stab wound!" Cordelia announced, motioning over to Desiree. "Not even a tinge of a scar. You are so lucky! Oh, and she offered to buy Wesley and I lunch as a thanks," Cordelia continued on excitedly as she looked over to Angel, as though asking him permission.

"You've got money with you?" Angel asked curiously.

"I own a bakery," she answered softly. "It's about an hour away from here. I already called in and asked for someone to bring some food down. I hope that's not too much."

"Not at all!" Cordelia interrupted, not even giving Angel time to think of what he could say to the redhead. "Is it good?"

While the question may have offended others, Desiree only smiled softly as she looked over to the younger woman. "I would have to say so." Angel noticed the kind of motherly sense that came over her whenever she was speaking with Cordelia, the type of person who had been around for so long that they begin to consider the entire world as their home and all of its occupants as their family. Cordelia's young and innocent—immature—aura must have given Desiree a more motherly feel toward her.

"Is there coffee?" Angel asked after a silence had fallen over the room, breaking the awkward pause in conversation, as he looked over to his unofficial secretary.

"Yes! And it's fresh! Who wants a glass?"

Wesley and Angel shared a look at her offer. Perhaps they should invite Desiree to stay if Cordelia was acting like this all the time now.

"I would love one, if it's not too much to ask," Desiree said first, smiling. Cordelia raced from around the computer desk and over to the coffee maker, manoeuvring around Wesley in the process. Desiree smirked faintly in amusement as she looked over to Angel with a raised eyebrow, getting a simple headshake from the vampire. It was clear, even to Desiree, that the other woman was acting very strange.

A knock sounded from the doorway, drawing the attention of all four present. A man stood in the doorway, a large, white paper shopping bag in his hand that had logo on the front in bright red. Desiree immediately smiled at the sight of the male, who looked surprised when his eyes landed on her.

"Anthony," Desiree said in a pleased voice, "You arrived sooner than I expected."

"I admit I broke a few laws," he said with a sheepish grin before it transformed into a full blown smile as he marched up to her. "Who dressed you? I haven't seen you in this much fashionable clothing since Tracy was alive!" Anthony made a full circle around Desiree, looking her up and down from head to toe.

"That would be me," Cordelia said as she jumped into the conversation, coffee forgotten and only half prepared. "Cordelia Chase." She held out her hand to the attractive male, her face breaking out into a flirtatious smile.

"Anthony Delgado," he introduced in return. "I work for Anna-oh, sorry, Desiree." Angel and Wesley perked up at the slip, their curiosity shining through. The change didn't escape Desiree's attention, especially how Angel seemed to step in closer as though he was about to hear a secret.

"Anna?"

"To make a very long story short, Desiree here's been with my family for generations," Anthony started explaining, "It was one of my ancestors that began the ritual that at the end of every generation the male born Delgado would give Desiree here a new name; kind of help her to change with the times and all that. There's only ever been one woman and that is my grandmum, because my grandfather died unexpectedly and wasn't able to keep up the tradition."

"She had never truly liked the thought of the Delgado family following me throughout my eternity, but I saved her life once and she decided to put differences aside -"

"And later on Des was the one to introduce my parents!" Anthony threw in for good measure, getting a grin of amusement from the red haired demon.

"What was your name before Desiree?" Wesley asked in curiosity, adjusting his glasses.

"Annabella," Desiree answered fluently, an accent entering her tone. She looked nothing like an Italian, but the accent that she was able to use could definitely fool anyone. She must have had an extremely long time to perfect not only numerous accents but languages as well. "So, hungry?" she asked, looking over to Cordelia, who smiled gleefully and caused Desiree to smile in amusement before holding her hand out to Anthony for the bag he had.

Cordelia was able to curl herself up behind her desk with the take out tray of salad, humming happily about free food while Anthony and Wesley spoke a few feet away, sitting on the couch they had. Angel shook his head in amusement through the window between the offices, Desiree leaning against the side of his desk with a faint smile on her face. Angel couldn't stop his eyes from sliding away from her face down to where he could see a clear view of the exposed skin on her back. From where he was sitting in his chair, her back was level with his eyes and that made it extremely hard not to look.

"I didn't know that you were working," Angel said to break the silence, tearing his eyes from her skin so that he wasn't caught when she looked back toward him over her shoulder.

"For generations now. I used to own other businesses, but I didn't really need them and sold them to deserving people," she explained. "When you live for as long as I have, you tend to only really want what will keep you alive and happy, instead of getting greedy. For a while I was pretty bad, taking just because I could. I've learned that's not right, and I'm glad that I was able to change my ways so that I can fully enjoy the life I have now."

Angel knew all about that, and it was nearly painful to admit.

"I know the feeling," he finally agreed in a low voice, noticing when she glanced back at him quickly, but didn't comment. "So, you're going to be going back there? With Anthony?" he asked, hating the pregnant silence that hung between them. Desiree hummed, tilting her head to the side. Angel felt a strange sensation fill his stomach at the sound, almost musical even though it was only a sound that she unconsciously made as she thought.

"I tend to just bounce around, but I might go back just to recuperate a bit more," she finally answered, glancing over at him with brilliant eyes.

"You could stay here," Angel offered before he even had a chance to realize what he was saying. Desiree looked over to him with amusement and surprise in her eyes as he fidgeted in his seat, trying to think of something to say that could fix what he had blurted out.

"Thank you for the offer, Angel, but I don't think it would be far for me to steal your bed again," she answered, smiling. She didn't appear offended at his blunt offer, if anything she almost seemed flattered at his suggestion. "Besides, I can't just abandon Anthony, and I've been gone for a while so the others are probably concerned." A sudden knock on the door caused them both to turn their eyes over to where Anthony was standing in the doorway, his hands still raised where he had knocked on the glass window on the door.

"I'm going to be heading out soon, are you coming with?" he asked carefully, glancing between the two.

Smiling, Desiree nodded her head. "I'll come back with you, better than trying to find another way," she answered. Nodding, Anthony sharply turned on heel, nearly yelping when Cordelia appeared behind him with a broad smile. Desiree laughed breathily at the other woman's actions. Anthony was considered to be very attractive, as he as an 'Italian Stallion' and was often chased after by leagues of women. Many had actually seen Desiree and assumed that she was trying to steal him from them and threatened her, some discretely while others did so openly and bluntly, but she just laughed them all off and joked around with Anthony about it whenever they were gone.

"Poor girl," she said faintly. "He's engaged."

"Ah," Angel said from behind her, watching as Anthony tried to ward off the woman as politely as he could. "That explains why the Cordelia charm isn't working," he continued, getting a laugh from Desiree. Moving suddenly, she pushed herself off of his desk and tried to adjust the shirt that she was wearing, hating how short it was. Her clothes were more covering than the belly top that Cordelia had lent her, but she wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.

"So, I should be getting out of your way," she declared, turning to face him with a smile. Angel quickly rose to his feet, relieved that he had been able to do so without stumbling. It wasn't often that someone could cause him to become awkward and foolish, but there was just that quality about Desiree that made him feel like a high school kid that hadn't even had his first kiss yet. "It was nice meet you, Angel," she said as she held out her hand, keeping her luminous eyes locked on his. Because they didn't have the blinds open, the office was dark and caused her eyes to glow as they had while in the cells of the fighting ring.

"The pleasure's mine," he said with a quick smile, taking her hand in his. Her body was so warm against his cool skin that it sent a wave of shock through his arm, her hand pulling back before he could fully register that it had happened. He missed her warmth nearly immediately. Smiling one last time, she turned to depart. Angel was resigned to sit in his office for the rest of the day, his eyes falling to the desktop as her soft footfalls reached the door.

"Oh, Angel?" she called over, watching as his head snapped up immediately. She had a serene look on her face, one hand resting on the window as she looked over her shoulder to him. "Thank you again, for helping us get out of there. I know that you were just as locked up as everyone else, but if it wasn't for your friends I would probably still be down there." Angel found himself thinking back to her in the ring, her dirty skin and glowing eyes, the silver bands that she was forced to wear keeping her in check. The scene of her killing the guard played back in his mind.

"I'm glad you're safe, Desiree."

**Because I felt like being nice, and ashamed at the length of time this has taken, DOUBLE UPDATE!**


	6. Lost Within Paradise

**Lost Within Paradise**

Angel wasn't obsessing. He tried to convince himself of that as he sat in his office, looking down at the bag that Desiree had left behind that had held the food Anthony had brought with him. The logo on the front of the bag was all that he could see as he found himself wanting to find where it was, so that he could find Desiree. He wasn't obsessing. He just wanted to know that she was still safe, and the people from the ring hadn't gone looking for her again. Was that a possibility?

Inhaling deeply, he pushed away from his desk and headed toward Cordelia's computer.

Desiree stepped along the stone floor of her basement apartment, the chills that rose up her feet causing bumps to break out over her flesh. Her wet hair hung loose along her back, a grey tank top having replaced the shirt that Cordelia lent her and allowed her to keep. The material was wet along the back because of the water transferring from her hair, but she didn't show that she cared as she stepped toward her kitchen and turned on the stove burner as she picked up her tea kettle. She didn't really need to eat human food or concern herself with the nutrients that it provided, but it took the edge off of her own hunger.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Anthony asked from where he leaned against the doorway that led from the front entrance, the fact that he had just come from work visible because he was wearing his 'stain shirt' and the strong scent of spices wafted off of him like a physical wave. Desiree inhaled deeply, having missed the smell while she was under. There weren't many good things to smell down in the cells.

"I'll be fine," she assured, moving away from the stove. "I'm home, Tony, and I'm here to stay. Don't worry too much about me." He huffed slightly but still nodded his head and moved toward her with a calm stride, opening his arms. Not even hesitating, Desiree stepped into his arms and allowed him to catch her in an embrace. Returning the hug, she took in a deep inhale of his spices and masculine scent, closing her eyes.

"You rest up, Des. You're going to be bombarded by everyone tomorrow," Anthony warned as he began to pull away from her. She laughed softly as she patted his arm gently, then reached up and placed her warm hand against his cheek as she smiled. He smirked cheekily, causing her to roll her eyes and pull away.

"You should be getting back to Savannah," she said, "before _she_ starts to think I'm trying to steal you away as well. I just got out of a fight ring, I don't need a blood thirsty fiancé coming for me next," she jested as she pushed gently as his chest. Anthony just laughed but moved back anyway, heading toward the door. "Careful on your way home," she warned, pointing at him seriously. Anthony paused just as he reached the door, thinking back to when Desiree had saved his grandmother.

"I promise," he agreed.

As the door closed behind him, Desiree leaned back against the wall as she inhaled, pushing down the hunger. She should have fed as soon as she was out, but returning with Angel, then coming straight home she hadn't had time. The energy she had used since killing that guard was nearly gone and her body was craving more. It was too dangerous for her to be around humans at the moment, and she feared what may happen if she was around the entire family the next day if she didn't feed.

Pulling her hair over her shoulder and twisting it to prevent it from falling all over the place, Desiree made her way back into the kitchen to finish making herself a tea. Tapping her finger on the side of the kettle proved that she still had a while before it was boiled and decided that she had time to get dressed to go out before it began to hiss.

The modest apartment that she had bought years before was the lowest level and allowed her near silence whenever she was home. The people above her were elderly and often slept or just sat around majority of the time, giving her the silence she so enjoyed. It was slightly foolish to wish for peace and quiet when living in the city, but she didn't want to be too far away from Anthony at the moment. The apartment was a fair size and had recently been renovated; all of the brick walls having been fixed, the appliances replaced and the floors done. There wasn't a single thing aside from the old style that remained from the old apartment.

Striding up the three steps that separated her bedroom from the living room, she pushed aside the thick black curtain that closed off the private space and immediately moved over to her closet. Going to a demon club would be best, so sticking to darker colours was smarter, black being the better choice. Black leather pants, a black halter top and her black leather jacket soon took place of her grey tank top and black pants, her red hair pulled back into a French brain and exposing her pale face and shocking eyes.

"Dinner time," she mumbled to herself, hearing the kettle beginning to hiss in the kitchen. Only ten minutes later she was heading out the door, her body warmed by the tea with her hunger curbed just enough that she knew she wasn't going to hurt someone accidentally on the way to the club. Demon clubs weren't a place she liked to frequent, but it was the fastest way to feed without anyone realizing.

Angel stood on the roof of the building across from Desiree's, having been watching the shadow of her form moving around in her windows for only a couple of minutes before she stepped from the entrance, ascending a set of stairs at the back of the building that were closed off by high fences. The owners of the building took precautions to protect its residents, and he found himself relieved that she was safe while she slept.

The strange thing, though, was that she was dressed for a night out even though she had only just returned. He had though she would be more reluctant to leave her home after what had happened with the fighting ring, but he couldn't expect her to fear everything. If she was as he expected, a demon from the dawn of time, then he didn't think she would fear much. It was as she had said, she fully enjoys life.

Deciding it best to remain unseen, Angel leapt down to the building beside the one he stood on and began to follow after the calm woman, the streetlights catching her red hair and causing it to appear as flaming strands. It was only when she turned down an alley a minute later that he was forced to jump from the roofs and cross the street to continue pursuing her. He felt as though he was invading her privacy, something that he hadn't felt in a while when he was following after someone. Most of the time these days he was following someone because he was investing them, that wasn't the reason he was going after Desiree in the dead of night.

Stepping into the alley that she had turned down, Angel stopped when he realized that he couldn't see a single trace of her. Standing in the entrance to the darkness, he remained completely still as he tried to listen for anything that could tell him where she had gone. There weren't any doors in the alley for her to enter, and he doubted she could have walked all the way down the length of the passage before he reached the entrance.

"A predator stalking a predator," Desiree's voice said from above him, causing Angel's body to tense as he looked up toward where he heard her speak. She was crouched on the ledge of one of the windows of the office building, looking like a black shadow in the night. Just as they had in the cells, her blue eyes appeared to be glowing like a cats when hit by light, or as though they were lit from the other side. "This never ends well."

"That's not it, I swear," Angel quickly defended, turning to face her as he craned his neck to look up at her, the window up on the second story of the building. "I admit, I was following you, but I was only coming to check on you and you were leaving your apartment." Desiree hummed once more, the sound causing Angel to shiver involuntarily. He partially wished that she would stop making that sound.

Pushing off the ledge, Desiree allowed herself to fall to the ground. She dropped right in front of Angel, her long braid causing a dull thud when it hit her leather jacket. "Not a good time to be checking up on me," she said in a calm voice, even though she looked quite tense and weary. Unlike when he had seen her that morning, she was more of a sickly pale and there were shadows beneath her eyes.

"Desiree, what's wrong?"

"Different demons feed in different ways," she offered, looking away from him and down the alley. "Physical food doesn't keep my energy up for long; just as you need blood, I need my own sustenance."

"Like what happened with the guard?" Angel asked, dread filling him. "You were going to kill someone tonight?"

"No," she said immediately, looking back to him with a quick snap of her head. "I don't kill the innocent. If I hadn't been locked away for so long I wouldn't have killed the guard, but I was starved and my body reacts on instinct in those situations." They both glanced to the side when someone walked by, glancing at them briefly before they quickened their stop and continued on to their destination.

"Would you have tried to feed from him?" Angel asked in a hushed voice.

"No," Desiree said, calmed once more as she shook her head in denial. "Demons allow me to feed without killing, only if it's a very weak demon does it die. I was heading to a demon's club. It's easiest to feed without causing suspicion in a crowded area."

Angel was silent as she looked away from him, his eyes glancing along her face. She did look tired, almost as tired as when they had first escaped from the ring. She didn't look as vibrant and it was as though the life had been pulled from her body. "I'll go with you. I don't trust demon clubs," he finally said, watching as her eyes widened and she looked up at with in surprise. Licking his lips, Angel glancing down the alley briefly before he returned his eyes to hers.

"The younger protecting the older," she said in amusement after a moment before she motioned with her head down the alley and began walking once more, glancing back at him over her shoulder to make sure that he was following her. Angel was like her shadow, moving behind her silently along the concrete. He truly was a predator; it was actually on a whim that she was able to briefly catch sight of him from the corner of her eye while he had been jumping from one building to another.

She stopped at a section of brick wall that appeared just as solid as the rest of it, but when she moved her hand forward, searching, it slipped straight through the brick as though it wasn't there at all. Angel watched in shock as she continued stepping through, her hand extended before her. When she had disappeared completely through the wall he hesitantly stepped forward to follow. The sensation of stepping through felt like he had walked through a wall of water without getting wet, without even a rippled left in his wake.

As soon as he had passed through the wall it was like he was in a completely different area; demons filled the space of the club as loud music pulsed through the room, the bodies that packed the area all moving to the rhythm of the song. Looking around, he had already lost sight of Desiree in the packed room. Demons looked his way as he passed by, no doubt because of the look of him. He wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic person when it came to being in places like a demon club, or a club of any kind.

Desiree pushed herself through the throngs of people, trying to get into the center where she could be completely surrounded on all sides and she knew that wasn't a chance that Angel could get caught up in her power. She didn't need for him to be weakened for her sake. The feeling of people connecting all around her made her power thrum, begging to be brought to the surface and she found it so hard to resist the pull. Hands glided along her leather clad arms and legs, ghosting all along her form as the mass of dancing demons greeted the newest arrival. Hands pulled at her jacket, trying to remove it, but she fought against them and instead raised her arms up above her head and began to hum along to the music, her body beginning to sway.

Tipping her head back, she finally allowed herself to pull at the energies of the demons around her, feeding off of their enthusiasm, their desires and emotions. Bodies all pressed in on her as they unconsciously sought to get closer to the low music that was passing from Desiree's lungs. She closed her eyes and lowered her hands, caressing along the hair of a woman at her right and the broad shoulder of a male to her left, both slouching just a tiny bit as she pulled their strength gently from within them. They only felt slightly more tired, but they got a rush from it as well, as though they were coming down from an orgasmic high.

As Desiree pulled in more and more of the power from the people around her, she began to stand straighter and move more with the music, pressing back against the bodies so those around her, singing more strongly as the bodies shifted, the people that had already come in contact moving away to take a break as fresh blood stepped in toward the sound of her song. Her eyes began to glow until they looked like illuminated ice, shining in the darkened club.

A hand against her back drew her attention. This one was different; it was ice _cold_.

Angel stood behind her, his eyes black because of his dilated pupils. Before she could think to push him away, her own bliss of strength and hunger blocking out her thoughts, Angel lunged forward and caught her lips in a kiss, her hunger surging to the surface renewed and beginning to pull his strength from him. But as a vampire, he had very strong reserves of power, ancient reserves. Her eyes almost hit a white shade as the power flowed through her, heating her body and making her heart race.

People seemed to relax away from them as her voice cut off, but Angel was still caught up in the physical contact and found himself pulling her flush against his body, their leather clothing suddenly far too constricting. No one seemed to care that they were lip locked in the middle of the dance floor, no longer even dancing, but simply standing there as they pulled on one another. Desiree was becoming too hot and quickly pulled away from Angel, grabbing his leather coat and pulling him through the crowd toward the hidden entrance they had passed through.

The night felt freezing when she pulled them both through the brick, looking around to make sure that the alley was still empty before she released Angel's coat and moved a couple of paces away. Her entire body was trembling as she blinked her eyes quickly, trying to clear herself of the high she had acquired from feeding on him.

"I am so sorry," Angel gasped from behind her, finally remembering exactly why he had accompanied her in the first place; had said that he would protect her from the demons in the club and he was the one that ended up molesting her on the dance floor. "I don't know what came over me-"

"That's my fault," she interrupted quickly. "It's like I said the night we got out of the ring; I'm a Siren—in a sense. There are hundreds of legends on Sirens; they can take on different forms to lure victims, they're mer-people, they're half bird. The list goes on. There is a bit of truth to several of the myths, but not one is wholly correct. Over the centuries the true story slowly deteriorated into bits and pieces," she explained, moving to lean against the cool brick across the alley from where Angel was standing. "There were three original Sirens, sisters, each created differently.

"The youngest sister was of the sea, born as a water nymph that used her voice to lure in sailors to the island that the sisters dwelled on. She became the one that brought about the myths and legends of Sirens being mermaids because she could indeed adapt her body to the waters she lived in." Angel leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the alley as he listened to her speak, his eyes looking over her body. She had undergone a complete change since they had entered the packed room. She was no longer sickly and weak looking, but instead appeared young and vibrant, at full health once more.

It was hard to deny how attractive Desiree was after she had fed.

"The middle sister was of the land, a forest nymph if you will, that lived off the land and sang to the nature around her. She used her song to not only nurture the living things that surround her, but to draw the willing into the woods so that she would feed from them. She became known as a forest spirit, because of her way with the world around her. She became one with the trees, the flowers and the very ground beneath her feet.

"The oldest of the sisters was the sister born to the air, bringing about the rumours that Sirens were half bird. It was believed that she lived on an island, waiting for passing boats to attack and feed on. She's one of the most violently depicted, eating the bodies of the men she caught. However, she only used her voice, just as her sisters did, to lure the men before feeding from them. The three sisters didn't actually eat people, as I've heard through the years, but they only fed on their energy, their emotions. If they wanted, they could kill someone, but they didn't feel the need. They weren't violent or hateful, just lonely. You see, there were only the three of them. They didn't have anyone that they could truly love because there was no one else that they could truly live with. Their loves would only die if they chose a human to share their love.

"So, two of the sisters became desperate and chose demons, but the offspring the created wasn't of pure heart. Between the Siren blood and the Demon blood, they were created as monsters that only wanted to kill. The two sisters died at the hands of their own children while the third fled the island they had taken refuge on for so long."

Angel looked at Desiree with a pained look, watching as her eyes glassed over with withheld tears. Her hands were fisted inside the pockets of her jacket and her lips were drawn into a thin line as she glared at the ground before her.

"Which one of the sisters are you?"

**And another chapter! Yay, it wasn't months between updates this time!**

**I totally loved writing this chapter, so I hope that everyone enjoyed reading it just as much! Anyway, I don't know why I'll have the next chapter out but it assure you it will be soon. Please review, I always love reading what people think! **


	7. Swallowed by the Dark

**Swallowed By the Black**

It had been a week since Angel had seen Desiree and he wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing. It was concerning with how he felt when she was around because of the chance that he might be truly happy and lose control of himself to Angelus, but he was also worried about Desiree. She had been okay when he left her at her apartment, but there was always that fact that he didn't know whether she was truly okay or not. A feeling deep in his chest told him that something was wrong.

"We should go and visit her," Cordelia said as she bounced excitedly in her chair behind her computer desk. "It would be so awesome to go to her restaurant. They have amazing food, oh my god," she gushed happily, causing Wesley to sigh as he looked over to Angel.

"We can't just go pop over there right now, Cordelia. It's still sunup," Wesley interrupted Cordelia's fantasy, causing the woman to pout as she fell back in her seat. "Besides, you do realize that it is a very upscale restaurant and you will actually have to pay this time? You can't expect free food from the woman all the time, she does run a business." His words only got him a glare in answer, making his sigh and fall to sit on the couch.

"Wesley's right, it's not like she needs us shadowing her everywhere," Angel threw in, looking down into his coffee mug and swirling the remaining liquid around inside the ceramic.

"Oh? And what about the night you snuck off and creeped her?" Cordelia asked, raising a plucked eyebrow at him and causing the vampire to nearly choke on the coffee that he had been in the process of swallowing. "Uh-huh, that's right, I caught you red handed! Oh…I caught you computer history-ed!" she snapped, pointing an accusing finger at him and smirking. "That's right, I looked back and saw that while Wesley and I weren't here someone had looked up The Delgado."

"Angel?" Wesley asked curiously, having not known that Angel had gone after Desiree without at least letting them know.

"It was the night after she left, I just wanted to make sure she got there safely. Nothing happened, Cordelia," Angel tried to defend himself, looking between his two employees. "Nothing happened," he repeated at the disbelieving look that Cordelia was shooting him. "Except…I might have kissed her."

"Angel!" Cordelia nearly screamed, her eyes wide. She hadn't been expecting that kind of a confession. Maybe that he had followed her around all night, but not that he had actually kissed her. "What would have happened if you had gone all batshit crazy again? Huh?" The vampire actually flinched slightly at her accusation, while Wesley looked at Cordelia with a warning glance.

"Cordelia, I doubt that would happen just because of a kiss," he defended. "But why would you do such a thing, you had only known her for a couple of days at the most," Wesley continued, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Angel shifted uncomfortably where he was leaning against the doorframe to his office, clearing his throat as he thought back to the song she had been humming while they were in the club.

"It kind of happened without either of us doing it on purpose," he answered at last, turning to head into his office to close himself off.

"No you don't, Mister!" Cordelia yelled to stop him. "What's that supposed to mean? You don't just kiss someone accidentally." Angel remained with his back to them as he thought over what Desiree had told him after she pulled them from the club, and considered if he should tell Wesley and Cordelia. She wasn't a threat, so there wasn't much reason for them to know, but it was also a terrible thing for him to hold back something so important.

"She really is a Siren, isn't she?" Wesley asked, never once moving from the couch. His face held only seriousness as he watched Angel carefully, noticing the tenseness of his back.

"In a sense," Angel quoted, stepping into his office and closing the door behind him. Just thinking back to the night was hard, trying to supress what it felt like when he had been kissing her, holding her against his body. She was so warm, so welcoming that he wished he could never let her go. It took everything inside of him not to go back to her after that night, after he had left her at her home. He could easily find her again, but he knew that he had to stay away.

It was dangerous enough that he had gone to her that one time, but for him to go back a second time could end with things progressing even more, and perhaps ending with her freeing Angelus. She didn't know about what happened to Angel when he was truly happy, so the risk was too great.

"_Which one of the sisters are you?"_

"_Maybe someday you'll find out."_

The thing that bothered him the most was that he was struggling with discerning the true feelings that he had for her and the feelings that her song induced.

"_I think it's best if I go to feed on my own from now on,"_ _Desiree said as she glanced over at him from the corner of her eye, walking side by side with him to get back to her apartment. "I don't need to accidentally kill you." She had no idea that that wasn't what Angel was worried about when he had come back to his senses. He was more concerned about the people that he would end up killing._

"Angel!" Wesley called from the outer room, the vampire immediately shooting up from his seat and running from his office. Cordelia was seated on the couch, clutching at her head and hissing in pain. Her face was scrunched up as she squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her teeth, hating the pain that was rocketing through her skull as images that she couldn't recognize flashed behind her eyes.

"God! Why me?" she nearly screamed when the vision ended, her hands fisted in her hand as she fell back to lean against the couch. "I don't even know what the hell that was! A woman was being attacked, it was raining," she mumbled about, shaking her head.

"Did you see anything that could tell us where she was?" Wesley asked carefully, holding out a glass of water for Cordelia. She accepted it with a slightly shaking hand, taking a tentative sip before she shook her head in denial.

"No, it was night time though. Everything was dark and it looked like they were in an alley, but I can't really be sure. The guy was huge, though! You should have seen him, even all blurry and smudged he looked _huge_. Oh! Maybe we could ask for Desiree's help? Great idea, let's go!" Cordelia said, rising to her feet before Angel and Wesley each pushed her down with a hand on her shoulder.

"Cordelia, we can't just go by and bother her because you had a vision that had _nothing_ to do with her," Wesley said calmly. "Let her settle back into her own life, she was in the fight ring for a long time before Angel was caught." Cordelia sighed dramatically and fell back against the cushions on the couch, pouting. "About the man, would you assume he's a demon?"

"Oh, definitely. He had these eyes that looked like a snakes, it's was disgusting!"

"Alright, Cordelia, how about you start going through the website to see if you can find a demon that looks like the one in your vision?" Angel offered, getting an incredulous look from the woman.

"Are you kidding! Do you know how many things there are on that site. I'll be looking all day!"

"We don't have anything else to go on," Wesley reasoned. "Angel and I will go through the books. Unless you would like to trade?"

"I'll go start looking through that website," Cordelia said immediately, rising from the couch and moving over to her desk and turning on the computer, refusing to look back over to the two men. Angel and Wesley shared a brief look of amusement before they turned to head down to Angel's apartment to retrieve the books on demons.

**ᵻ**

"It's a good thing you're back," Anthony said as he placed a mug of coffee in front of Desiree, relieved to see that she had gone out and fed recently and wasn't as sickly as she had appeared when he brought her home. "The demons in the area got the wrong idea when you weren't out on your patrols. You might want to get back out there and show them that things are still in your control."

"They've been causing trouble; nothing big, but it'll only lead to worse things," Savannah said as she looked between Anthony and Desiree, her hand on her enlarged stomach. She had gotten quite a bit bigger in the month that Desiree had been missing, and she was beginning to look weary throughout the days as the baby tired her out.

"I've been doing brief sweeps, but I haven't come across any demons that were doing wrong. I'll do a proper patrol tonight, but I can't promise that it'll be different," Desiree said as she spun the mug in a circle using the handle.

Anthony moved to stand behind Savannah's chair, placing his hand on her shoulder gently. "It won't hurt just to make sure. Word's starting to spread that you're back because of your appearances now and again, but they're only rumours as far as the other demons care."

"Has anything happened at the restaurant that I need to be concerned with?" she asked calmly, leaning back in her seat and finally taking a sip of her coffee.

"Nope, things have been running smoothly, thank god," Anthony said as he looked around the empty restaurant, still closed until the later hours of the day. "Some of your demon regulars came in looking for you, but I told them that you had business you were dealing with and that you'd get back when you could. They're probably going to be coming in again soon, so you'll have to speak with them as well."

"I feel like a year passed me by and not a simple month," Desiree said with a sigh in her tone, placing her cup back down on the table. It hadn't really affected her, having to live through the fight ring, until she came back to the family that she had made for herself and realized how much she had missed. Savannah stood up suddenly and stepped around her, wrapping her arms around Desiree's shoulders and pressing her cheek to the other woman's temple.

"Everything will be back to normal soon, don't worry," she assured gently, her voice already a soothing, motherly tone. Desiree smiled and shot Anthony a look before she reached up and placed her hand over Savannah's, thanking her silently.

Desiree stayed at the restaurant, catching up on all that she had missed until opening time, greeting the customers and allowing many to question her playfully on where she had been. She was hugged, received kisses on her cheeks, and asked the same question over and over again until she was tempted to just write the answer down and hold it up for people to read instead of having to repeat herself; where have you been? Away on business.

Taking the back door, Desiree escaped into the alleys with a sigh of relief, the noise from inside the building starting to make her temples throb. The silence of the night was soothing and she began a steady walk in the direction of her apartment, wanting to change before she went out on her patrols. The night air brushed along her skin, cooling her down. Against her will, it reminded her of Angel. His skin had that same chill to it and she remembered when he had held her close while he kissed her in the club.

A rush of dark energy froze Desiree in place before she ducked instinctively, a large clawed hand flying through the air where her head had been before. Thunder cracked overhead as Desiree jumped away from where the second large claw was swinging down on her, long gone before it hit the ground. Curls of red hair spun around her face as she turned to face her attacker, meeting a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

"What do you want?" she asked in a low, calm voice. The lightning flashed in the clouds, illuminating the alleyway and allowing her to see the face of the demon. He was wearing some kind of armour, preventing her from getting a good look at him. It was full body armour, telling her that he had been coming looking for a fight.

He snarled before charging once more, Desiree easily dancing out of the way as another crack of thunder shook the ground beneath her feet. Clearly, her new friend didn't want to talk. Getting herself behind him, she lifted her foot and threw a minimal amount of force into it as she slammed it against his spine, throwing him several yards forward. An animalistic growl left his as she lifted himself up once more, turning to her with his body hunkered down for another attack.

"Stop," she commanded. To her shock, though, he was able to ignore the command and charge at her again, faster than she had been expecting. She was still quicker, however, and was able to duck out of the way before he cut her with the razor claws he had on the end of each finger. "Alright, hard way."

This time, as the skies opened and began to pour rain down on the city, Desiree charged. The armour protected majority of his body, but there were areas that she was able to get close enough to begin draining his energy slowly. It was only a couple of minutes later, when the alley was littered with puddles of water and she was soaked to the bone, that it realized she only seemed to feel weaker as time went on. Feeding on someone in a fight, even, usually gave her energy.

She was caught off guard when her head spun, giving her attacker the opportunity he had been looking for. Desiree only barely lifted her arms in time to protect her head when he slammed his arm down, but it sent her to her knees and left her arms throbbing in pain. She was sure he hadn't broken anything, but they were going to need time to heal. He didn't give her that time, however, and lifted her by the neck and slammed her into the brick wall of the nearest building.

She was wheezing in pain, struggling to take in air past his hand. Letting out a frustrated growl, she threw her hand forward as hard as she could, her sharp nails cutting through his armour, lacerating her arm. She dug her claws into his heart, growling low as his hand slackened before releasing her. She choked a moment as air rushed back into her lungs, pulling her hand free and resulting with the metal cutting further into her.

She only managed to stumble a few feet away before collapsing to the ground, the world fading into black.

**I wanted to make this chapter a long one to make up for the long period between updates. Sorry that there isn't any Angel/Desiree action going on in this chapter, but you got plenty of that in the previous one, so just hold tight!**


	8. Essence of Angels

**Essence of Angels**

"If I have to look at one more icky, snotty, slimy demon I am either going to puke or stake you!" Cordelia threatened as she marched into Angel's office, shuddering in disgust over having to look through the gross demons to try and find one that reminded her of the one in her vision. "It's disgusting!"

"I take it no luck, then?" Wesley asked as he rose from his chair, picking up his coffee mug to go and get more. "Angel and I haven't been able to find anything in the books, either," he added on as he walked passed her, getting an annoyed look from the brunette. "Are you sure there's nothing else that you can tell us about this demon? Or maybe the woman?"

"No! I've already told you all that I could see!" Cordelia stressed, moving over to take Wesley's seat across from Angel at his desk. "It was dark, there wasn't much to see as it was. Be glad that I could tell you what I did!" A sharp flash of lightning from behind Angel, showing through the still closed blinds, caused Cordelia to jump. Angel paused, glancing over his shoulder as the thundered followed after shortly.

"Didn't you say that it was raining in your vision?" he asked slowly, looking back over to Cordelia. She appeared to be thinking for a minute, confused, before her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "That attack's probably happening tonight."

"And I know who was attacked," Wesley said from the doorway, looking solemn as he held the office phone in hand, the cord trailing out of sight. "It's Anthony; Desiree was found unconscious beside the demon that Cordelia described, with the demon dead."

"Oh my god, is she alright?" Cordelia asked as she jumped up from her seat, Angel rising as well.

"She hasn't woken up yet, and they fear that something is wrong. Her body isn't healing from the fight," he answered, holding the phone out toward Angel. "He wants to speak with you." Without pause, Angel stepped around his desk and took the phone from Wesley, moving out into the main part of the office as his two employees followed after him.

"Anthony?"

"Angel, I don't think it's safe to keep Desiree here," Anthony said immediately. "It's lucky that some friends found her in the alley and not one of the demons that have been trying to push her from power of this part of the city. She keeps the demons in check around here and if they hear she's hurt they'll come looking for her."

"You want to bring her here," he said bluntly.

"It's probably the safest place for her right now. Please, Angel, I don't even know what's wrong with her. As long as I've known Desiree, this hasn't happened. She's been unconscious for hours and she's not healing, I think the demon was able to poison her somehow-"

"Anthony, it's alright, just calm down. Can you drive her down here?"

"Yea, I can be there in about forty-five minutes." The line went dead and Angel put the phone back down, turning to face Cordelia and Wesley. They both looked fearful at the prospect of it being Desiree that was attacked. Angel could see the guilt already shining in Cordelia's eyes that she hadn't been able to tell that it was her and be able to keep her safe.

"She's coming here," he said quietly.

Just over half an hour later, the office got a second call from Anthony, this time from his cell, saying that he was outside. Angel immediately left his seat and headed out from the office, Cordelia and Wesley taking chase after him. The rain was still pouring down outside, but they noticed Anthony's car pulled right up to the curb in front of the door as soon as they stepped outside. Angel caught sight of Desiree's slouched form in the passenger seat and moved to the door, opening it before Anthony even had a chance to take notice that they were approaching.

"I'll go park and come in in a second," Anthony said as he helped Angel to manoeuvre Desiree from the car. Her skin was ice cold, a sharp and disturbing contrast to when Angel had last touched her, but her forehead was covered with a thin layer of sweat. She looked worse then she had when she was locked in the fight ring.

"We'll meet you in the office," Angel answered as he lifted Desiree into his arms. She felt as though she weighed only a couple of pounds, when he knew that in reality she would be at least one-twenty lbs. Cordelia appeared behind him, holding an umbrella to shield them from the rain as Wesley held the door open at the top of the stairs. Anthony drove over toward the parking lot as soon as the passenger door was closed, signalling Angel to walk.

"She really doesn't look so good," Cordelia commented as soon as she saw Desiree's weary complexion.

Angel didn't comment but continued up to their office, making sure that Wesley closed the door behind him as laid Desiree down on the couch gently. Her body was completely limp, pliant to his actions as her arm hung over the side of the couch and her head lulled to the side. Her clothing was damp and her hair was messed.

"Angel, her neck," Wesley said as he moved forward and shifted a couple of curls of hair from the side of her neck. A hand shaped bruise encircled her throat, but at the end of the finger prints there were scratches left from the claws, the injuries turning a faint blue colour as they became infected with whatever poison had been left from the demon.

"How exactly did she kill the demon after she had been poisoned?" Wesley asked, glancing up at Angel as though he would hold the answer.

"She ripped his heart out," Anthony answered from the doorway, drawing eyes to him as all three in the room glanced up. "That why her arm is bandaged; he was wearing armour when she punched into his chest and the metal cut her up. She lost a lot of blood before she was found. I also think that he may have taken the same poison right before he fought her, because she would have been draining his energy and ended up becoming poisoned even faster."

"He gave his life just to poison her?" Wesley asked in disgust.

"Desiree's got a lot of enemies, demons that want to control her part of the city. She hasn't quite got back on her feet yet and they took advantage," Anthony said in hushed tone, his underlying anger clearly heard and seen as he glared off at the far wall. "And there's nothing I can do. I am terrified right now because Des is the one that knows about demons and all this, she tries to keep us sheltered as much as she can and now she might die-"

"She's not going to die," Wesley assured, rising up to his full height and approaching the other man slowly. "We'll find the poison used and get our hands on an antitoxin. You just need to have faith."

Anthony swallowed thickly as he cast his eyes to the ground. "She might not be able to heal even then. She's weak and her body can't work properly without at least some strength, but if she can't wake up then she can't feed and she-"

"Anthony," Angel interrupted gently. "We'll take care of her. I know how she feeds; we'll figure something out."

It took coaxing from all of them, but Anthony soon agreed that he would head back to the restaurant to make sure that no demons caught on to Desiree's condition while Angel was looking after her. The two men were back to the books, but this time they were able to find the demon that had attacked Desiree in the alley. However, there was no information on any kind of poison that the breed tended to use in battles. They weren't considered smart enough.

"Someone else is clearly behind the attack," Wesley concluded as he placed the book aside. "This demon isn't even smart enough to plan an attack, let alone find the right poison to take Desiree down through her ability to feed on energy."

"She's really cold," Cordelia commented from the couch, pressing the back of her hand against Desiree's cheek. "What if we warm her up? Maybe it'll help her to heal faster?"

"Cordelia's right. Desiree does have a higher body temperature than a human, it might be somewhere we can start," Wesley agreed, looking to Angel to see what he thought on it. "I feel there isn't much else we can do."

"I'll take her down and wrap her up in some blankets," Angel agreed, nodding his head as he tossed his own book onto his desk and rose from his chair. "You guys keep looking to see if you can find that poison and where it could have come from. If we can't get an anti-toxin then we'll just have to make it." Cordelia fell into Angel's chair as she watched him carefully slip his arms beneath Desiree's shoulders and legs, lifting her from the couch as gently as he could.

Wesley rushed to open the elevator doors for Angel, stepping aside as the larger man stepped through the space, careful not to hit Desiree's legs on the sides of the protective fencing. Closing the elevator back up, Wesley and Cordelia watched as Angel slowly lowered out of view, disappearing into the basement with the unconscious redhead in his arms. The strong scent of pheromones still wafted off of her, nearly making Angel light headed as he walked along with her in his arms. He carefully pulled back the thickest of the blankest on his bed and placed her down gently.

"Desiree," he said softly, reaching forward to run a hand along her chilled flesh. She almost felt colder than he was, and he was actually dead. "Can you hear me?" he asked hesitantly as his fingertips ghosted down along her cheekbone, following the dip toward her lips. They were, shockingly, quite warm. The feeling that had rushed through him as he kissed her slammed back into his mind and he was forced to pull his hand back as the temptation to kiss her once more gripped him.

Looking back toward the two entrances into his apartment, he couldn't hear Cordelia or Wesley coming down either way and turned his attention back to Desiree's pale face. Before he could change his mind again, Angel leaned forward and pressed his lips down against her warm ones gently, his hand cradling her cheek in a soft caress. He nearly drew back in shock when she suddenly inhaled softly, almost non-existent, but held himself still. The familiar feeling of weakness and fatigue slowly began to creep into his bones as his lips pressed to hers with greater pressure. Whether he was subconsciously deepening the kiss or no longer able to hold his head up properly because of the sudden weariness he wasn't completely sure.

Faster than he had been moved in a long time, Angel found himself on his back on the other side of the bed, Desiree straddling his hips as she ripped at his shirt, throwing buttons in every direction as they were torn away in order to expose his chest. For a split second Angel worried about what she was doing, but instead of going to attack him as he had feared she was prepared to do, she curled herself down against his body. Her hands slipped under the sides of his ruined shirt, gliding over his ribs, and Angel realized that she was simply seeking closer skin contact. He remembered her mentioning that skin contact made for easier access to someone's energy stores.

"Desiree?" he asked carefully, wondering if she was even aware of what she was doing. She didn't answer him, though, and Angel craned his neck to look down at her face, her cheek resting against his chest. Her eyes were still closed and she appeared to be sleeping, but he could hear that her heart was beating more quickly and the warmth was slowly beginning to return to her skin. Even as he began to feel like he was falling asleep, he was still glad that he was able to help Desiree to heal herself.

However, when he glanced at her neck, the infected cuts remained as raw and dangerous as they had when she was brought to them.

"Angel?" Wesley's voice called from the doorway, causing Angel's undead heart to lurch as his eyes snapped over to the other man, a panicked look on his usually controlled face. Wesley looked more curious than appalled or angered, putting Angel somewhat at ease. "Is this how she feeds, then?" he asked a moment later, looking down at the prone form that was sprawled out over Angel's torso.

"Kind of, yea," he answered. "I was trying to see if she was awake and…she's a lot faster than me when her instinct are control her actions," he answered, not telling a complete lie. Wesley looked slightly doubtful at the full truth that Angel may or may not be telling him, but he didn't say anything against Angel's words and instead glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Cordelia didn't come down. She wouldn't take the scene anywhere near as calmly.

"We haven't been able to find the poison, however I do know someone that tends to be very knowledgeable about such things and I was going to take Cordelia with me to go and see if we can identify it." He paused, considering his next words. "The only thing is that he _may_ need a sample."

Angel nodded his head, glancing back down at the blued cuts on Desiree's neck. "Well, are you going to do it, or should I?" he asked, half serious as he lifted his mostly useless arms. Because of the way that Desiree had decided to lay after ripping his shirt, she was preventing him from lifting his upper arms from the mattress without risking rousing her or causing her to react and harm him because her source of health was trying to flee.

Desiree didn't flinch as Wesley had been worried that she would when he used a fine knife to scrape off a bit of the infection and drop it into a glass jar. She did turn away from him a moment after he pulled away, pressing her cheek against Angel's pectoral muscle. "I'll make sure that Cordelia doesn't come down," Wesley said faintly as he turned to leave, sharing a warning filled look with Angel.

He watched the man leave her he glanced down at Desiree, feeling her moving again.

She turned her face inward, resting her forehead on his chest as she took in a deep breath through parted lips, the soft, warm skin brushing against Angel's as he began to feel the effects of her feeding. Dizziness and fatigue weighed on him and his eyes soon began to fall shut.

**A bit of a shorter chapter, I know, but there was near nudity and cuddling so that should make up for it. I am going to try and get another chapter out in a couple of days, but that may or may not happen depending on how much time I have to work on my next chapter. Hope that you all liked it and give wonderful reviews! **


	9. Endurance of the Silence

**Endurance of the Silence**

Angel wasn't entirely sure when he had fallen asleep, but when he opened his eyes it felt like it had been days since he'd closed them. The first thing that registered was the fact that he was alone on his bed, the weight of Desiree's body no longer resting on top of his. The second thing that came to his attention was the faint, almost inaudible, crying that was coming from the entrance area of his apartment. He was shocked at how tired his body was as he tried to pull himself off his bed, nearly losing his balance in the process. It wasn't hard to realize that offering himself to Desiree to feed on while she was unconscious and unable to control herself was a foolish decision, but he didn't entirely regret it.

"Desiree?" Angel called out in a soft voice, knowing that if a calm, gentle approach was best for a crying woman.

The crying toned down, sniffles and heavy breathing nearly silenced at his voice. Stepping along the cold flooring, Angel eyes sought out where Desiree was, listening intently for where she could be. Rounding the couch, he nearly missed her when he realized no one was sitting on the couch, but she was instead sitting on the floor in front of the furniture, curled in on her body.

"Desiree," Angel began gently, moving forward. She shied away from him, though, and tucked her head down against her thigh and prevented him from properly seeing her. "Desiree, what's wrong? Is it your neck? Wesley and Cordelia went out to try and find an antidote-" he cut himself off when he saw her shaking her head, her shoulders still trembling. "Does your arm hurt? I can change the bandage." Again, she shook her head softly. Reaching forward, Angel gently lifted her head by placing a finger beneath her delicate looking jaw, forcing her to look into his eyes.

The dullness that had overtaken the usually beautiful vibrant blue tore at Angel's dead heart, the cold sweat still lingering on her forehead with her hair stuck to her skin. She was trembling, her arms holding her knees close to herself. She still looked terribly sick, even after he had allowed her to feed from him so that she could heal.

"Please, tell me what's wrong."

Again she shook her head, almost as though she was denying his request, before she took his hand from beneath her chin and manoeuvred it to instead wrap loosely around her throat. She opened her mouth as though she was about to speak, but no sound passed her lips. She squeezed Angel's hand, forcing him to squeeze her throat and opened her mouth, still remaining silent.

"The demon took your voice," Angel breathed out, watching as new tears appeared in her dull blue eyes, her hand falling away from his and her head falling down once again. Moving forward, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her against his still bared chest. She was eerily silent as she cried, leaning against his chest as tears trailed down her cheeks in clear streaks. "We'll work this out, Desiree. Don't worry; I promise you, we'll get your voice back."

Desiree just kept shaking her head, as though he was lying to her over and over. There was nothing more that Angel could do to try and reassure her, so he simply kept a hold of her and tried his best to calm her down and comfort her.

It was an hour later when he was able to get her moving, leaving the place that she had curled up on the floor, to go and take a shower. Angel lent her the same clothes that she had worn the first time she stayed at his place, sitting on the couch with a book open to the image of the creature that had been found in the alley. He could hear her moving around inside, a sharp contrast to the silent movements that she had been able to move through the previous time she had used his shower.

It was also around that time that Cordelia and Wesley clamored down the stairs, appearing out of breath. Angel rose from where he was sitting, looking between them. They didn't appear to have the anti-toxin, but there was a light in Wesley's eyes that promised good news.

"He did not have the anti-toxin, but he gave me the way in which to make it," Wesley began immediately, not bothering to try and beat around the bush in any manner of speaking. "The only problem is that we need the poison as one of the components, so we'll need to get our hands on that. What is in Desiree's blood won't be clean enough to work."

"Where is she?" Cordelia asked as she leaned around the corner of the room, trying to locate the other woman who was no longer lying on Angel's bed.

"She's in the shower." Somehow, Angel was able to make even that sentence sound morbid and the two knew something had happened. "It turns out the demon was able to steal her voice somehow; she can't talk."

"Geez, she can't catch a break," Cordelia mumbled, just before the door to the washroom was opened and Desiree stepped out, Angel's large clothes once more hanging heavily on her smaller frame. She still looked as pale as a corpse and her hair was wet and hung around her face in un-brushed tendrils, but she was awake and that provided some positive reactions.

"How are you feeling?" Wesley asked in concern as soon as she had stopped just inside the living area of the small apartment, her eyes falling to the floor in something akin to shame or embarrassment. Her only answer was to shake her head in a negative response.

"Well," Cordelia interrupted, already beginning to hate the painful silence of Desiree having no voice, and held up a bag of what appeared to be groceries. "If you're going to be staying here, you'll need food and Angel seriously lacks that. So, I took it upon myself to get you something that isn't blood." It appeared as though Desiree wanted to smile, but her face couldn't quite bring itself to show the emotions. However, her tense and withdrawn posture relaxed just slightly.

"You just didn't want to go into the magik shop," Wesley threw in as he leaned casually against the wall.

Cordelia shot him a look that brought a tiny smile of amusement to Angel's lips. "There were dead things hanging on the walls. _Dried _dead things."

Before the argument could escalade, Desiree had stepped between them and gently nudged Cordelia's arm without touching any skin, turning her toward the kitchen and succeeding to end the conversation between the two opposites. Cordelia forgot all about Wesley and began to adamantly speak to Desiree, even though she knew that the other woman couldn't talk back in any way. Desiree nodded along to encourage her, though, and they soon disappeared into the other room.

"So where can we find this toxin?" Angel asked once they were gone, directing Wesley's attention back to him.

"That's the problem. I don't know yet."

Night grew later and soon it was time for Wesley and Cordelia to depart, no further knowledge on the Toxin having been found. Desiree seemed out of it for most of the night, staring off into space or reading through the page of the demon that had attacked her over and over again until she probably knew it word for word. Cordelia was able to convince her to eat some fruit, but aside from that the rest of the food went away in the fridge for another time. Angel figured that even if she had been capable of speaking, she wouldn't have had much to say. He noticed that she was more of an observer, preferring to stand to the side and watch in order to calculate the right move before acting.

Angel could tell she was discretely relieved when the others left, and finally removed herself from the corner she had placed herself in on his couch.

"You should take more, Desiree," Angel tried to encourage once Cordelia and her badgering nature had finally departed and left the two alone. The woman shook her head, though, and turned herself slightly away from him, angled so that she was staring off past him and into the bedroom instead of having to meet his gaze. "What if I don't mean the food Cordelia brought?"

Her head lifted and her dulled eyes looked at him with surprise before she shook her head again, this time more with a look of concern on her face. She was afraid she would hurt him and take too much of his energy. Even as a vampire, someone that didn't tire easily, he could still become weak and even die if she sucked too much of his undead strength from him.

"You need it, Desiree," Angel continued, moving to sit right in front of her. She tried to get to her feet and put distance between the again, but he caught her wrist and gently sat her back down. "Your body can fight against the poison and the infection longer if you feed, we both know that. I don't know how long it'll take to get the anti-toxin." Lifting a hand to her cheek, she attempted to speak but no sound left her lips. Her eyes were closed and she refused to look at him.

She felt much warmer than when he had first taken her from Anthony's car, but he missed the heat that she had carried with her when they were in the Demon Club.

"Let me help you, Desiree," he hushed as he leaned forward to ghost his lips along her temple, the skin contact making her shiver as she supressed the urges he was stirring inside of her. Instinct and thought warred inside her head.

When she was distracted with her own thoughts, Angel used the hand still resting on her cheek to turn her to face him, pressing his lips to hers as he had done in the club. She snapped back, breaking the contact, and drew in a shuddering breath. Angel took her arms and wrapped them around his neck as he pressed his lips to hers again, this time preventing her from pulling away. She didn't have the desire to break the contact a second time and instead slipped her hands into the back of his shirt to touch more of his skin.

"Let me save you," Angel whispered against her lips before he allowed her to separate them long enough to strip him of his shirt and bare his flesh again. Relief sparked inside of Angel when she opened her eyes to show the vibrant azure colour once more, the dullness having faded away at last. He knew it would return, but Angel still let his worry for the Siren lift as her lips sought his once more while her quickly warming fingers began to trace along his back, following the notches of his spine.

The bruises on her neck, already mostly healed from earlier that night, faded completely from her flesh with only the scratch marks left behind. She didn't show any signs of discomfort from the gashes on her arm so he could only assume that those had healed themselves beneath the bandages as well, the flesh no longer marred with imperfections.

Angel could feel the dizziness coming to him much faster than before, making him sway on the spot as his hands grasped desperately at the back of her shirt.

Noticing the change, she quickly pulled away from him to scoot back along the couch cushions, her shining eyes looked up to him through dark lashes as she took in deep gulps of air to try and calm her racing heart. Angel grasped the back of the couch for support as he no longer had her to take hold of. "I won't hurt you, Desiree."

'You' she mouthed back to him, looking concerned. Shaking her head, she felt along her throat with a faint smile, as though to tell him that there was no more that he could do. Her bruises had healed and the infection would not be fought off so easily. Knowing that he understood why she had backed off, Desiree rose from her place and leaned forward to press a ghost of a kiss on his lips, her hands framing his face with soothing warmth. Angel could hear the silent words. _Thank you._

Moving passed him she took hold of his arm to guide him with her to the bedroom section of the apartment. Angel went with ease, allowing her to move him to lie on the bed before she slipped onto the other side, sliding under the covers while he remained on top of the thick duvet, watching her carefully as she closed her eyes and exhaled softly. Allowing her to feed from him in intervals so close together had depleted his strength and he couldn't keep his eyes open for long, soon slipping into sleep alongside Desiree.

Angel woke hours after the sun had raised, his eyes snapping open at the quiet sound of pages turning. Slipping from the comfort of his bed, he saw Desiree sitting on the couch with the books stacked beside her, her still bright eyes skimming through the pages quickly. Her fingers feathered over the paper with the lightest caress, showing how delicate she was with the old texts that Angel had stocked up. When she heard him moving about her eyes flicked over to him and there was a soft smile that touched her lips in replacement to a 'good morning'.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as he sat on her free side carefully so as not to knock over any of her open books. She was looking through the toxins that they had been searching through the night before, perhaps wishing for more luck than the others. She nodded her head in an affirmative response, glancing up from her book to look into his dark eyes. "I'm going to grab a shower," he said softly so as not to further disrupt her and moved to the washroom to the sound of flipping pages.

It seemed that her scent followed after him wherever he went in his apartment, even though it was all of his own possessions, just having her around left her scent on everything; his clothes smelt of her, the furniture and even the walls themselves. Her Siren heritage made her scent strong to other predators, but also to those that would have been considered her prey.

When he stepped out from his bedroom, dressed in fresh clothes, she was no longer in the living room but had moved to the kitchen. She had pulled her hair up into a messed bun, the rings of red still loose enough that some tumbled down her back as she sliced an apple that had been amongst Cordelia's groceries. She looked over her shoulder to him, the bright blue of her eyes illuminated in the darkness of his basement apartment.

"I have to go back up and help Cordelia and Wes, but you can come up if you want," he offered, noticing that her feeding had made her slightly restless. In silent response she looked down at her clothes, or rather Angel's, before she looked up to him curiously. "We don't really get many people in unless it's for a job, so I think you'll be okay."

After collecting her apples slices in a bowl she followed Angel to the elevator. The elevator wasn't small for two people, but Angel stood directly at her side as they ascended. The light from Angel's office illuminated the space of the elevator, but it was still quite dark considering the curtains had been drawn closed to prevent sunlight from getting inside. He pulled the protective gates away from the exit and allowed Desiree to slip out first, her bare feet padding softly on the floors.

"Hey!" Cordelia cried out excitedly at the sight of the Demon, causing Desiree to smile in amusement and move over to greet the other woman as best she could. Cordelia manoeuvred her over to the couch and sat her down as she began to go on a rant about having to get her other clothes again. Desiree didn't stop her and simply ate her apple slices as she watched Cordelia's antics with mirth dancing in her vibrant eyes.

"How is she?" Wesley asked Angel as they two women remained in the front part of the office, leaving the men to watch from the doorway to Angel's smaller space.

"The injuries that her body could heal are gone, but she still has the infection and her voice isn't back," Angel explained as he frowned, his eyes landing on the marks that remained on Desiree's neck. "Was there any luck on your end?"

Wesley heaved a sigh and turned away from the doorway to sit on the chair across from Angel's desk. "I haven't been able to find anything on the toxin, which will make it impossible to create an anti-toxin." Wesley watched as Angel circled around his desk to take his own seat before the window, his eyes lingering on the window between rooms that allowed him to see the two women, one chattering away while the other silently endured. "But, there has been activity near The Delgado that Anthony told me about over the phone that could lead us to whoever was employing that demon."

**I'm slowly giving small doses of Angel/Desiree interactions, but I don't know whether it's a treat for you guys or torture ;)**

**Anyway, I hope that you all liked it and I'll do my best to get another out soon. Please review! It's always lovely to hear from you!**


	10. Blood Song

**Blood Song**

Desiree sat behind Angel in the fashionable car he had acquired, the hood down and allowing the cool night air to blow against her face. Wesley sat next to Angel in the front while Cordelia took up the space next to Desiree—surprisingly quietly. While the boys headed out to try and find the toxin, it was decided that the girls would return to Cordelia's apartment for the rest of the night where they wouldn't be found. Angel didn't want to take any chances with their safety and Cordelia's apartment was nowhere near as well-known as Angel's place below the office.

"There is one thing that you're going to need to know. My apartment is haunted by a ghost, his name is Denis and he sometimes doesn't take too well to new people in the apartment." Desiree looked over to Cordelia with an exasperated look, but the other woman just shrugged her shoulders with a smile and turned her attention forward as Angel slowly took a turn onto her street. "I'm going to have to get you a pen and paper, these one sided conversations get boring quickly. Are you a fast writer?"

Desiree laughed silently, her smile enough to assure Cordelia that she hadn't inadvertently offended the Siren. Angel pulled to a slow stop in front of Cordelia's quaint home. Wesley and Angel piled out of the car alongside the two woman, helping them from the back seat and onto the pavement. Desiree smiled in thanks to Angel as he closed the driver's door and walked her around to follow after Cordelia.

"We'll call if we find anything, so please answer if the phone rings," Wesley was telling Cordelia, getting a look from the brunette as she unlocked her door. Angel took a gentle hold on Desiree's wrist, the wrist that had once been covered in gashes now fully healed and free of bandages, and drew her to a careful stop.

"Promise me that you'll stay inside. I know that nobody knows you're here, but I don't want to take any chances." His fingers slid along her wrist comfortingly, soothing and soft. Desiree could feel his emotions warring inside of his energy, a mixture of different things that took her a moment to distinguish. She could tell his concern for her, as well as the attraction that he was trying to bury, but there was a crispness of fear in his aura that confused her.

Reaching up to cup his face gently, she frowned a moment in consideration of what could be causing him reason to fear. Angel mirrored her action, his larger hand covering her cheek with a cooling touch that she leaned into slightly. Her bright eyes continued to analyse his face, trying to see if there was anything that could tell her the reason for his hectic emotions. Lifting the wrist that he still hand in his other hand, Angel pressed a kiss against the tender skin on the inside as he closed his eyes. The scent was strong there, the sound of her pulse ringing in his ears.

"Hey, where are you guys?" Cordelia called from the entrance of her apartment, breaking the two apart reluctantly.

"I'll come back soon," Angel promised quietly as he turned and left, Desiree's shining eyes following after him before she turned to where Wesley was leaving the apartment to follow after the vampire. Cordelia smiled excitedly from the doorway and motioned Desiree forward with enthusiastic hand gestures. Glancing over to where Angel was sliding into the driver's seat of the car, she hesitated only a moment more before she turned and headed into the apartment with Cordelia.

Meeting briefly with Anthony outside of the Delgado, Angel and Wesley got an address and a name from the man of a demon that had been causing trouble for years. His name was Skylar and apparently had been known to use lesser demons so as not to get his hands dirty. He was their best lead up until that moment. According to Anthony, who had only once been told by Desiree, Skylar was a creature called an Aatxe, who had the ability to shape shift. He was also known to cause mayhem and havoc on nights when a storm was passing through.

"That can't simply be a coincidence," Wesley insisted as they walked steadily along the streets, looking for the proper building that Skylar had last occupied. "Desiree was attacked on the night of one of the largest storms this season."

Stopping in front of the building with the same address as the one that was supplied by Anthony on the page, Angel looked over to Wesley and nodded his head. "Not a chance." Of course they needed to get into the basement of the place, the locks strong for a regular human but easily broken once Angel got a hold of them. Wesley kept behind Angel as he scouted for any sign of someone else being in the area still. "There's no one here," he said after a couple of minutes of silence. Moving away from Wesley for a moment, he flipped the switch for the lights nearest to him.

"Perhaps we can still find the toxin, or at least some record to find what it was?"

Wesley moved toward the nearest shelving unit, seeing a combination of books and files stacked together. Slipping into librarian mode, he quickly began skimming through everything in sight as fast as he could while Angel abandoned him to head for the office that he could see across the way. It was neat and everything seemed to have its own place. He could hear Wesley muttering to himself as he was looking through the files but soon blocked him out as he began opening the drawers of the desk at a steady pace, making sure nothing escaped his notice.

"Would it be best to call Desiree and see if she knows anything more no this Skylar?" Wesley called from the main room as he continued to flip through a vanilla folder with careful and precise hands.

"I don't want her involved any more than she is," he answered bluntly, turning away from the desk toward the filing cabinet on the far wall.

Wesley paused in his search to look over to where Angel was firmly concentrated on the task at hand, his face drawn into a frown. He had been seeing less and less of that frown since Desiree had come into the picture, but more and more of the distant look that he got when he had once been thinking of Buffy. Now, it seemed the he had finally found someone else to think about, but there was still the concern that would never ebb. Angel would always have the risk of becoming Angelus if he let his heart feel love and true happiness.

He did wish that Angel could find happiness, but at the same time he knew the dangers of such a thing. "Find anything?" he called to the vampire, but Angel only shook his head negatively and continued pulling another drawer open and beginning to search through the files. Turning back to his own work, Wesley tucked the folder back in place and pulled another one free.

"Are you going to ask me or just continue to worry in silence?" Angel asked while he continued his work. Wesley stopped abruptly and turned to Angel, hands still on the folder.

"What are you doing with Desiree, Angel?" he finally blurted out, turning to fully face the doorway that he could see Angel through. The vampire straightened in turn, facing Wesley as he tucked his hands into his pockets. "Could you ever actually have something with her? Does she even know about the conditions of you having a soul?"

"It's not like that, Wesley. Nothing's happened between us," Angel defended, holding up a hand in a gesture to halt the Brit before he could continue.

"You kissed her, and you let her feed from you to heal. Your mood has improved much in the time you have known her and I can see it on both of your faces whenever you are near one another. As much as you want her, she wants you, Angel. I am concerned with Angelus, but I also feel that to string Desiree along before you decide it is unsafe and drop her does not seem fair to her." Angel hung his head in faint shame as he looked away from Wesley, resuming his previous stance with his hands neatly tucked in his pockets.

"You're right," he agreed in a quiet voice, the deepness still carrying through the space between them. "As soon as she's healed and has her voice back, I'll break things off with her. She'll go back to her life and things will go back to normal around here." Wesley moved to speak again but Angel turned his back and pulled open the middle drawer of the filing cabinet, dismissing the conversation.

Returning to the shelf, Wesley heaved a sigh. "I wasn't saying that, I just didn't want you both to get hurt," he mumbled to himself, keeping his back to his friend.

"Wesley!"

Whipping around, prepared for the vampire to scold him, the Brit stopped short at the small vial that Angel was holding. It appeared to be filled with blood that had a strangely golden hue to it, almost like someone had added a few drops of the liquefied metal into the red. "It's Desiree's. I can smell it."

"Her blood?" Wesley asked, almost horrified. "Why would they keep her blood? What good does that serve."

Angel extracted the box that the vile had been placed in a moved to the office desk. Wesley rushed over to peer down into the small wooden box, where there were two more vials. One was a grotesque yellow and the other was clear, almost like water. "What do you want to bet that one of those is the toxin?"

"One's the toxin, I assure you."

Both men turned toward the entryway, spotting the sharply dressed demon that stood between them and their exit. Angel tucked the blood back into the wooden box and closed the lid, his posture straightening as he prepared for the demon to do something. "Are you Skylar?" he asked accusingly, his dark eyes never leaving the other man's face. His eyes were a shade of brown that bordered on red, giving him an unsettling aura.

"Yes, that would be me," he admitted with a smirk falling across his face. He was the kind of guy that Angel had seen Cordelia date in the past, with charm and looks that got him everything. He had a condescending attitude that was easily seen by him, giving him a warning at first sight. "You must be a new friend of Desiree's. Go ahead and take the toxin. I'll even give you the anti-toxin. I only wanted her blood."

"I'll be taking that, too," Angel interrupted fluently. Skylar seemed to lose some of his charm as he sneered discretely for a moment. "And you're going to tell me how to get her voice back."

"Ah, so that did work!" Skylar exclaimed happily, leaning forward slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned causally against the doorframe. "Wonderful, I was hoping that it would. Now I don't have to track her down and find out for myself. You must be the one that hid her away, yes? I've been looking all over for her."

Wesley glanced between Angel and the shape-shifter, knowing that Angel was beginning to lose his patience with the other man. There was a strong tenseness to his body that was more than just preparation for a fight. Angel's feelings toward Desiree were increasing his reactions toward Skylar's words and what had been done to her now that Angel was faced with someone to accuse. "How'd you take her voice when you weren't even there?"

Skylar's smirk grew as he looked down at his well-manicured hand, appearing unconcerned. "Desiree was there for quite a while, laying in the rain all covered in blood. It was very easy to take her voice, you know? And a Siren's blood, oh, so strong and-" Before he had a chance to continue Angel had lunged at him violently, throwing himself against the Aatxe and resulting with the both of them falling violently to the floor. Wesley quickly collected the box from the desk and rushed past the quarreling men. Skylar roared in outrage when Wesley darted through the door, swinging at Angel uselessly. A vampire was much stronger than an Aatxe, his original Bull form his stronger one.

Throwing a punch straight against Skylar's nose, Angel silenced him easily before he grabbed his suit collar and pulled him up from the floor slightly. "I protect Desiree now, and you do not want me to come back here."

Skylar laughed, showing blood on his teeth and bottom lip. "There are worse things out there than me that want her, little boy. She's too rare to be left to her own devices. You do know what she is, right?" he sneered up at Angel. Clenching his teeth in anger, Angel's face changed before Skylar's eyes. Bared fangs and ridged forehead, Skylar drew back at the sight.

"And you know what I am; don't think I'll hesitate to come back and take out your throat if you come near her again." Dropping the man back onto the carpeted floor, Angel glared down at him as he stood up once more. "Now, you're going to tell me all that I need to know."

Desiree found herself highly amused as she played a game of chess with a ghost that she could not see. Cordelia had long since gone off to bed, but she was still quite awake from her time spent with Angel the night before. Denis took his turn, the white piece moving on its own. Desiree had been mildly surprised to learn that Cordelia had a chess set; then again it was Denis that had floated it onto the coffee table in front of her when she had been sitting staring out the window.

Taking her own turn carefully, she knew that the ghost was thinking carefully on his turn when the phone to her left rang sharply. Holding her finger up to where the ghost was in a 'one second' gesture, Desiree picked up the phone quickly and held it to her ear as she made her way toward Cordelia's bedroom. Knocking on the door loudly, she could hear Wesley's voice in her ear.

"_Cordelia, are you there? Or is this Desiree? Desiree, tap the receiver twice_," he suggested. Tapping her nail on the receiver, she turned to the door where Cordelia was revealed, her hair mussed from sleep and her face looked less than pleased. Holding the phone out to her, Desiree mouthed 'Wesley' to her. Snatching the phone none-to-happily, the brunette stalked away from her bedroom to the living room.

"This had better be good, I was having an amazing dream of the red carpet-"

"_We have the anti-toxin and a way to return Desiree's voice,_" Wesley fluently interrupted her rant, stopping her dead in her tracks. Desiree's attention was peeked as she leaned against the wall at the entrance to the living area, watching as Cordelia woke up completely and smile split across her face. "_We're on our way to you now, but you're going to need to take a few things out for a spell we'll need to use. They're all herbs, so you should have them in your kitchen._"

"Alright, let me get some paper and you can tell them to me."

Desiree handed her the notepad and pen that she had been using to converse with the human a couple of hours before, watching as Cordelia scrawled out the names in messy writing. She spelt many of the herbs name's wrong, but Desiree knew what she meant when she was writing them out so she wasn't concerned. She remained lurking over her shoulder the entire time, getting a complaint from Cordelia that she was 'pulling an Angel and getting all dark and lurky' but she ignored her and remained in place.

"_Now, you'll have to steep the herbs in boiling water, keep them sitting until we get there," _Wesley instructed before the conversation ended.

Cordelia turned sharply to Desiree with a glowing smile. "You're going to get your voice back! Yay!" Embracing the woman suddenly, Desiree smiled faintly at her actions and wrapped an arm around her in return. Denis began to lift the chess board that they had been playing on into the air, persistently trying to get her to return to the game. "Ugh, go appease him while I boil up your herbs."

Returning to her seat before the ghost, Desiree continued to play the game through until she had beat the ghost, watching as his king fell to the side and then the pieces floated back into their places, as neat as they had been when he first brought out the game. Smiling at the air, the Siren lifted herself from the couch and moved to the kitchen to make sure Cordelia had been doing everything properly.

"Uhm, which one of these are Silybum Marianum?" Cordelia asked as she held up two different jars, one of which was holding the leaves of a dandelion plant while the other was labelled _Milk Thistle_. Pointing to the thistle one, Cordelia smiled and moved over to add them to the small tea ball for homemade tea. Cordelia, surprisingly, had a collection of teas and a mortar and pestle to break up the dried leaves to make her own.

The kitchen was soon filled with the strong scent of the herbs, their combination not exactly a pleasing smell to Desiree's strong senses. Placing the mug on the counter, they both stared down at it as though they were expecting it to start singing. Desiree was surprised that kitchen held products were enough for her, but she knew that the guys would have more with them that completed the spell fully.

When the knock came to the door Cordelia raced for it faster than Desiree could rise from her chair, causing her to laugh silently in amusement as she stepped around the kitchen island and into the living area. Angel and Wesley were stepping through the front door with a box tucked under Angel's arm, carved in old wood with magik symbols scattered along its surface.

"That thing looks creepy," Cordelia commented as she pointed at the box unhappily. "Come on, kitchen, let's go."

Desiree stepped back and out of the way so that they two men could enter. Looking over to Angel, she smiled her gratitude for him but he quickly looked away from her and placed the box on the island. Feeling the chill of his cold shoulder, her smile vanished and she looked down at her crossed arms for a moment before she turned her attention to the box. First, he pulled out a small needle with a clear liquid inside.

"This will get rid of the poisons in your blood," he explained in a withdrawn voice. "Hold out your arm."

Desiree waited for him to look at her, meeting her eyes with a sad stare before she did as she was bid and held out her left arm. Angel carefully squeezed around her elbow joint to bring the veins to the surface, the paleness of her skin allowing him to see them very easily. Desiree watched his face as he watched his work, sliding the needle into her arm without so much as a flinch from her in return. Cordelia made a disturbed sound at the sight and turned away, but Wesley was carefully watching the interaction between the two. Angel's actions toward her clearly disturbed her and she was trying to find out the reason.

Pulling the empty needle from her arm, Angel slid the cap back on and turned toward the box again. "Where's the boiled herbs?" he asked, soon taking the cup from Cordelia and pulled out a bottle of a red substance that Desiree recognized immediately. Stepping forward, she snatched the vial from Angel's hands and stared down at in in surprise.

"What's that?" Cordelia asked in a slightly disturbed tone.

"Her blood. It was how he was able to take her voice. Mixing the blood and the steeped herbs will bind her voice back to her body. It would only work with a demon that uses its voice for more than something as simple as speaking," Wesley explained. "The blood holds her voice and the herbs are the binding agent, so to speak. It's the glue to keep everything in place. The magik that he used is very dark and it more than likely took a grave sacrifice; I doubt he will try to do so again."

"What if the _glue_ doesn't work?" Cordelia snapped, looking between the vial of blood and Wesley.

Wesley glanced up at Angel, who had taken the blood back and was carefully unwinding the metal wiring that kept the glass top on and the bottle sealed. "Angel was very convincing with his interrogation, it'll work."

Pulling the lid off of the bottle with care, Angel upturned the bottle into the now lukewarm tea until the drips stopped. Stirring it briefly with the spoon left inside the cup, he slid it carefully over to Desiree. She looked down at the mixture doubtfully but took it in hand anyway and tipped it back, drinking the entire thing down without stopping. The strong tang of her own blood was strange on her tongue, and the strong flavor of the herbs made her fight to force the concoction down but she didn't stop until it was all gone.

Making a face at the taste, she placed the mug back on the counter and moved her free hand to her mouth. There was a burn left behind on her tongue and throat, almost like after one would eat spicy food, but other than that nothing felt different. Everyone in the room was staring at her, waiting for her to call a yay or nay on the spell. "Well?" Cordelia was the first to demand.

Instead of trying to outright speak, Desiree made a faint humming sound in the back of her throat to carefully test her vocal cords. Unable to make the sound before, Cordelia saw this as progress enough and screamed her excitement once more.

With Wesley and Cordelia focusing firmly on her, no one noticed Angle staring down at the drops of red blood that had fallen onto his finger and was still coating the rim of the vial in his hand.


	11. Taste of Life

**Taste of Life**

Anthony was relieved to have Desiree back, safe and sound, with her voice and everything. However, he could tell there was a distinct change in the way that she was acting and it was hard for him to pinpoint exactly what it was that had upset her or was presently upsetting her. He knew that she would not quite be herself so soon after what had happened, but at the same time she was strong enough not to let herself be effected so much by something that she had been expecting in her life.

"You're pining," he finally accused, watching as she spun a glass of whisky on its bottom rim with one finger on the top rim, the amber liquid inside swirling around with the movement.

"Shut up," she muttered in response, looked away from him. Letting out a sigh he walked around the bar to sit down beside her, taking the glass from her hand before she broke it, spilt it or drank it. "Not a good time, Tony."

"Stop moping already. Just tell me what's going on, huh? You've been there for me my whole life, literally, now let me be here for you." Looking to him with upset blue eyes, Anthony leaned forward on his elbows, his folded hands tucked beneath his chin as an image of pure attention. Desiree couldn't help but the smile as he looked at her with large puppy eyes, dark and innocent looking.

Sighing heavily, exaggerated, she leaned back in her tall bar seat and spun to face him fully. "It's Angel."

"The vampire?" he asked in surprise, dropping the act and giving her his full attention, properly this time. She smiled and nodded, her eyes taking on that same sad tone. "Okay, what about him? I know that he saved your life and all, but please tell me you aren't crushing on the guy so soon."

Swatting his knee, she glared in mock annoyance before she snatched her whisky back up and took a sip from it. "It started before that," she defended. "When we got out of the ring and I actually had a moment to talk with him. He's a vampire with a soul, the only person of his kind."

"Like you?"

"Yes," she stressed. "And he kept me safe, when I couldn't speak and could barely heal. He was the one that I-" Anthony held up a hand to interrupt her, making a face that just screamed 'TMI' and Desire shook her head in amusement. "Anyway, the night he came here and got the antidote and the spell for my voice, when he came back to Cordelia's apartment he was…cold. Distant. Like he didn't want to be there solely because _I_ was there."

"You're not used to guys not immediately wanting to have sex with you?" Anthony asked as his voice rose in pitch, actually showing surprise. She glared for real this time and swatted at him violently, getting a complaint in return as he scooted his stool away from her, realizing his mistake too late; it was meant as a joke, since Desiree may have been a physical person but was growing picky in regards to sexual partners. "So, what's the deal?"

"It was something that happened between when he left and when he came back. Before he left he was holding onto my wrist, touching my face. Afterword he could barely look me in the eye." Anthony straightened his posture as he frowned, he understood what she was saying but also concerned at the way she was taking everything. It wasn't often that she was bothered so deeply, but what Angel had done took a deep cut into her emotions.

"Good god, Anthony, you're terrible at this," Savannah declared as she marched over and shooed her fiancé out of his seat, ignoring his protests the entire time. "Get, go, off with you! We need girl time!"

Desiree sat back and watched the spectacle in amusement, taking the time to let the warm whisky settle in her stomach as she glanced from Anthony to his hard-headed love. Savannah slid up into the stood carefully, her hand settling on her very pregnant stomach. "Now I know where this little thing gets its persistence. Keeps using my kidneys as punching bags," she complained as she rubbed her side in agony.

"I could help," Desiree offered as she placed her drink to the side. "Hold still."

Leaning forward, she gently placed her ear against Savannah's stomach to listen to the baby for a moment before she began to hum a lullaby gently. The fetus that had once been wiggling about energetically calmed down considerably, letting the soft sounds it was hearing through the amniotic fluid calm it to sleep once more. Savannah sighed in relief at the removal of the pain and smiled to Desiree when she pulled away with a gentle expression in place.

"You would be the perfect mother someday," she whispered, seeing the sadness in the Siren's eyes. "But, let's work out this Angel problem first!"

As night fell, Desiree walked along the roofs of the abandoned buildings. Her hands tucked into her jeans, she walked along casually and without much cause as her eyes scanned over the area around her. She couldn't feel any demon energies that seemed threatening, just the odd one that was hidden away or stowed in a building to keep itself safe. The nighttime was the time of the demons, when they came out to play.

Stopping at the corner of a rooftop as she took a moment to listen carefully, Desiree truly wanted to be elsewhere. She had never had such a problem in the past. She always enjoyed her time patrolling the city to make sure that nothing happened without her knowledge. Huffing loudly, she stepped off the ledge of the roof and plummeted toward the ground six stories below, landing silently on her feet. She needed to find something more to do with her life.

At least until Angel stopped popping back into her head every other second.

Stepping away from the building with long strides, Desiree fought against the urge to get away from her job and take a night to herself. She wanted to return to the Demon Club that she had first attended when Angel had claimed to act as her guard, hoping that maybe being surrounded by other people could possibly get the Vampire off of her mind.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Desiree called through the darkness as her glowing eyes fell upon the shadowed figure in a distant alley.

"Senses are as sharp as ever, my darling," Skylar said as he stepped out from the alley, dressed in a fine suit with his hair slicked back with gel. "You're making friends with a strange crowd these days. Are your human companions not enough for you?" he asked in amusement, dark eyes twinkling in the night.

Stepping threateningly forward, Desiree's power crackled in the air between the two as her eyes took on a darker, threatening hue. "You're going to die, very painfully, if I hear of you straying anywhere into the thoughts or territory of my family."

"And what of that deep and brooding vampire friend that you have," Skylar teased as he looked her directly in the eye, before skimming down her body. He wasn't fast enough to react before a hand was clutching at his throat tight enough to restrict not only airflow, but blood flow as well. Choking a moment, he glared at Desiree before she promptly released him to allow him a moment to adjust his suit properly, the redness of his cheeks fading gradually.

"We share an acquaintance," she corrected him.

"Really now?" Skylar appeared to be the cat that had caught the canary as he smirked at her with fanged teeth. "Because he was pretty adamant to claim himself as your protector. You have someone that threatens me, the direct link to a god, and you claim nothing but an acquaintanceship with him?"

"Do you want me to drain you?" she snapped, her eyes beginning to glow in preparation of a feeding. "You know that I can, and the temptation is just too much."

Skylar took a large step backward as he held up his hands in surrender. "Now, now, no reason to go and get hostile-"

"Either leave or make this conversation worth my time. I have better things to do."

With one last smirk, Skylar turned and strode back down the alley that he had wandered up, following after her along the rooftops from the ground. Desiree watched him until he disappeared around the corner before she turned as well and made her way in the opposite direction. If it were not for the power that Skylar had over other demons she wouldn't have hesitated to kill him in penance for what he had put her through by sending that demon after her.

Whisking through the rest of her patrol, she made her way to the same club that she had gone to that first night with Angel, disappearing through the bricks and immediately pushing herself amongst the bodies. The envelopment of energy and power embraced her like the arms of a lover and she found herself relaxing as she began to dance and hum with no restraint, letting go of her troubles as she caressed the bodies of demons around her. She could feel that other vampires were occupying the club, but the lack of a soul darkened their energy and made it so disturbing in comparison to the only other vampire she had fed from before.

Arms caressed her as they embraced her from behind, the body dancing against hers as she pulled at their energy slowly, humming more loudly as her hands touched the forms around her. More demons, male and female, pushed forward at the sound as their eyes became distant.

She needed to forget about Angel, and the best way to do that was to be reminded of what she was. What she could never be and what she could never be with.

Parting from the crowd as she felt the continued caresses of those around her but paid them no mind and instead headed for the sidelines to try and get some space. She was feeling overheated, overfull, which was a rarity for her. Had Angel's blood contented her so much that she didn't need to feed for so long of a period afterword? Leaning against the cold brick of the wall, she took in deep breaths to calm herself, closing her eyes as she listened to the pounding of the stereos in the club.

"Come now, let's keep dancing," a woman said to her in a sultry voice, caressing her hands along Desiree's arm. She was dressed in very little and there were markings scattered along her orange tinged flesh, but she did have an attractiveness to her that she was sure many people fell for. Desiree, however, had sworn off relations with women when the centuries saw to their increased greediness.

"Go on," Desiree purred as she caressed the demon's hand in return. "Continue without me." Unable to deny the command, the woman smirked and sauntered off to continue dancing, most likely to break more than a few hearts before the dawn.

Gliding effortlessly through the crowd, Desiree began to sing a song that contrasted with that of the club, wishing for some semblance of familiarity. The song that had once called her sisters to her shook her vocal cords and soothed her aching heart. Strong hands embraced her but she broke free, moving toward the door. Her voice cut off as she darted through the entryway, breaking free into the alleyway and taking off at a dead run deeper into the bowels of the city. She was over energized and she needed to burn some of it off before she hurt someone accidentally.

The curls of her red hair flew behind her as she ran to her apartment, hoping that it was going to be intense enough of a run to at least give her the peace to sleep. However, as the building came into view there was still a buzz throughout her veins and along her skin, making her heart race. Turning down her stairs, she was nearly trembling with the energy that it took not to keep running. She needed to burn off the energy as she would have on the island, as she would have with her sisters.

Stepping into her apartment, she rushed to her room to get changed.

The shrill ring of her phone stopped her in her tracks, for it was much too late for a regular phone call.

Lifting it from the receiver, Desiree held it to her ear. "Yes?"

"Desiree! Thank god you answered!" Cordelia cried out through the other line. Desiree had actually forgotten that she had given the woman her number, considering the odd circumstances of the night and that she had been focusing quite intently on Angel's actions. "You have to come here, it might be nothing but I think Angel's about to go mental and kill a lot of people and you could probably help, you know, _a lot!_"

Desiree was standing as still as ice as she stared ahead blackly, unsure of what to think at her words. What had she rambled on about? "Cordelia, what are you talking about? Why would Angel kill anyone?" she asked quickly.

"He's a vampire!" Cordelia nearly screamed into the phone. "It's what soulless things do! Get down to the office!"

The phone clicked dead and Desiree blinked for a moment in completely bafflement before she rushed to her room to get changed quickly. It seemed she was going to get that chance after all, considering it would take much too long to travel an hour by car.

Soulless?

Cordelia continued to tremble as she watched Angelus recover from the water she had thrown on him, realizing that she had indeed been bluffing about the water being holy. Looking up to her sharply, unsettling golden eyes stared at her before a growl erupted from his chest at being tricked. Screeching in fear she ducked to the side as Wesley rushed at Angelus from behind, roaring in a battle cry as he pushed the larger man forward toward the elevator. The angle was slightly off, however, and he simply ran into the side of it harshly and was sent sprawling on the ground.

Cordelia made another squeaking sound as she rushed out of the vicinity of the angered vampire, watching as Angelus rose to his feet with a distinct snarl etched on his face. Wesley stepped before Cordelia as Rebecca continued to hide in the corner of the office, tucked away and unseen.

"What do you know, maybe you did finally grow a pair!" Angelus laughed as he straightened up, flashing fangs and sharpened teeth. "Now, what to do with you?" he pondered aloud, stepped toward them as they each stepped back in turn. "Ms. Stardom over there is already going to be my head on a pike, but what to do with you two?"

Cordelia screamed sharply when she ran into someone behind her, knowing that it wasn't Wesley or Rebecca, and turned sharply to see that Desiree was standing in the doorway to Angel's office. Her eyes were glowing in the dark, the ring of blue looking like illuminated water as she stared forward at Angelus. The vampire perked up at the sight of her, his head cocking ever so slightly to the side to show his interest. "You weren't joking about the killing thing," Desiree said to Cordelia without actually looking at her.

"Desiree," Wesley gasped in surprise, pushing himself and Cordelia out of her way as well. She herself didn't look as inviting as she usually did. Her porcelain skin appeared more like marble than glass and her hair was in windblown disarray, the red curls loosened into waves and appeared more like fire than ever before. Her eyes looked wild, pupils dilated and intense.

"Just who I wanted to see," Angelus purred contentedly, clapping his hands in front of him before he opened his arms in a show of invitation. "Come for me, Desiree?"

The Siren narrowed her eyes as she looked him over. There was nothing left of the Angel she had known, this person was of only dark energy. The power felt like that of a vampire, the vampires that she was accustomed to knowing before she met Angel. This being had no soul, no conscience or remorse.

"And just who are you?" she asked, moving forward. Her heeled boots tapped on the floor, the black jeans and black halter-top showing off the slightest bit of skin along her navel while her matching leather jacket covered up the arms that had once been bare, her halter-top once revealing the open flesh of her back before she covered it.

"Angelus," he smirked, stepping forward at the same time and leaving the two to circle around one another. Desiree soon stood before Rebecca, glancing back at the frightened woman that was covered in human blood. The smell was strong and caused her to turn away and face blame on Angelus. "Please, she literally wanted it," he defended, motioning back to Rebecca.

"So this is the soulless version," Desiree mumbled, looking him over with demonic eyes. "Strange, like another person but an identical face." Angelus smirked, baring all sharpened teeth. His golden yellow eyes were fixated on her, allowing for Rebecca to slip over to Wesley and Cordelia. Angelus stepped quickly and was soon standing directly in front of Desiree, staring down at her intently. She didn't seem frightened at all as he stared her down.

Her eyes were…curious.

"Angel, stop," Wesley tried to command, seeing the vampire's intent toward the redhead.

"Sleep," Desiree hushed, never looking away from Angelus's eyes. Wesley, Cordelia and Rebecca dropped to the ground like corpses, hitting the hardwood floors slightly more roughly than Desiree had intended, but she could only do so much for them. Angelus only seemed to find amusement in the scene, however, as he looked over to them and laughed.

When his eyes snapped back to her, there was a new interest in his eyes. "Nice trick, was that meant for me, too?" he mocked, stepped closer still until only a hair's width separated them.

Smirking in return, Angelus was surprised to see the sharp canines that were peeking out between her lips. They weren't quite fangs, but they were more deadly than the average human's. "Of course not," she assured, her voice tugging at Angelus's mind but there wasn't as much an effect on him as there had been on his other self. Tipping his head to bring their lips a breath away from one another, he paused briefly and smirked.

"I know how you feed, don't forget. And I've seen you use it as a weapon," he reminded. Snatching her wrists, but careful to only grab the leather sleeves, Angelus spun her around to face her toward the window. Moonlight was streaming through to create lines along the floor, bringing light to the otherwise dark room. "Can't touch your skin just yet," Angelus purred into her ear as his cheek caressed along her soft hair.

"Yet?"

"It's just this drug," he said dramatically, opening his mouth as though he intended it bite her but instead exhaled deeply across her exposed throat. "It'll wear off eventually. But I know you've got some kind of trick tucked up these sleeves of yours. You wouldn't have just run in blind, that's not your style." Inhaling the scent of pheromones from her hair, he growled contentedly. "He's tasted your blood, you know? _I've_ tasted your blood."

"Oh?" Desiree asked, turning her head toward him just slightly to look him in the eye with one bright azure one. "I think I'd remember that."

"The spell that returned your voice," Angelus reminded. "Some got on his finger when he was pouring it into the glass. Oh, he tried not to but you are just too tempting. He licked the blood off while all eyes were on you and it was _divine_. Nothing like those blood packs that he drinks; your blood is like drinking the pure essence of life. It was…_riveting." _Chuckling against her hair, he used his grasp on her wrists, their arms crossed over her chest, to spin her around once more and have her face him. "It took all the will within him not to keep that little bottle of your blood, get more of a taste."

"What do you think you're trying to do?" Desiree asked as she leaned up until she was nearly kissing him. "Turn me against him? We're not exactly close," she replied. "I mean, he helped me, I helped him, he helped me again. It's kind of just an ongoing cycle of who saves who. But, you know what he knows, so you're aware that he's quite uninterested."

"Because of me," Angelus sneered, looking every bit the predator that vampires were known to be. "It's all because of me; if dear little Angel gets too close to those he loves, I come out to play." Without another word, Angelus silenced further conversation with a harsh and demanding kiss, keeping a tight grip on her wrists as he pushed her down onto the surface of his desk while knocking several books off in the process. His lamp smashed on the floor and an empty coffee mug soon met the same fate.

Desiree immediately pulled at his energy, feeling that there was so much more with this side of him. She could only take so much because of the amount that she had fed at the club. Angelus knew it, too, as he pulled away from her with a bark of laughter and grasped her hair roughly. Her hand moved to his neck, not to choke him but to get at more of his skin, and he sneered down at her. "Performance issues?" he teased.

Snarling at him, Desiree pulled at his energy harshly and Angelus immediately felt the drain because of her strength. Pulling roughly on her hair, Desiree's concentration was momentarily broken as her head collided with the desk. Growling was her only warning before fangs tore into her throat, drawing forth her ancient blood. Desiree was in near pain at the grip that he had on her wrist and hair, but there was a numbness around the area in which he was biting her. Clenching her teeth, she tried to free her hand as her fingers dug into his throat in faint retaliation. He only groaned in response, angering her as she began to feel the effects of his drinking.

Thinking of no other way to get the vampire to release her, she threw her head back and let out a sharp keening sound that nearly caused the glass of the windows to crack, but it was enough to disorient Angelus's enhanced hearing and throw him back as he covered his ears, blood coating his lips. Kicking out, her boot caught him under the jaw. The strength she put into it would have been enough to break a human's jaw and neck, but it simply snapped Angelus's head back hard enough to knock him unconscious.

Breathing heavily, she looked down at his fallen form before she collapsed back onto the desk as the blood-loss clouded her mind, her body putting her to sleep so it could heal faster.


	12. A Demon's Possession

**A Demon's Possession**

Like a simultaneous alarm-clock in each of their minds, Wesley, Cordelia and Rebecca woke abruptly from their forced sleep. It was still dark within the office, but there was a distinct silence that set them on edge. It only took a moment for them to realize that some time must have passed because there were broken things from Angel's desk scattered along the floor with Desiree passed out on top. Angel himself was sprawled on his back on the floor, effectively knocked out with his face smoothed back into its human façade, remnants of blood on his lips.

"What the hell was that?" Cordelia snapped, pulling herself to her feet. "You knocked us out, you harpy, siren singing-"

"She's unconscious, Cordelia," Wesley interrupted as he moved toward the still form on the desk. "He bit her, recently. She's still bleeding. We weren't out for long," Wesley said in a rush as his hand descended onto the wound, stemming the flow of blood.

"What is she?" Rebecca asked as she shakily rose to her feet, still looked a frightened as she had while Angel was awake. "She…she's not human."

"Ya think?" Cordelia asked sarcastically as she handed Wesley a hand towel from the bathroom. "How could he have bitten her, though? Why didn't she just suck the life out of him like she did to that guy back in the ring?"

Shaking his head, Wesley glanced down at Angel. "We don't have time to worry about that. Hold this to the bite while I go and flip the power back on. We need to get him moved and restrained in case he wakes up as Angelus." Doing as she was told, Rebecca cowered back into the shadows as she watched the two move about. Wesley left them behind, alone with the two unconscious forms.

"I-I think I should leave," Rebecca stuttered out after a minute. Cordelia looked over to the woman with irritation clear in her eyes. She was seeing more than just her idol, but a woman that had nearly gotten them killed because she couldn't move on in her career.

"Good idea," she snapped, before focusing once more on Desiree. She didn't seem outwardly effected aside from the bite wound on her neck. She and Angel must not have gotten into much of a scuffle, but something must have happened if Desiree allowed him to get close enough to bite her; even worse if he took enough blood for her to pass out. Rebecca crept out of the room as quietly as she could, gone before the lights turned back on as Wesley flipped the switch in the power box. "Desiree," Cordelia called in a sing-song voice. "Wakey-wakey."

The woman didn't stir, however, and Cordelia huffed as she gave up. Peeling the cloth away from her neck, her eyes widened at the sight of the nearly healed puncture marks. There was still the ability to see that it had been a bite, but she knew that in a couple of hours there would be no trace left of the injury inflicted by Angelus.

"Lucky," she muttered, tossing the cloth aside since there was no real reason for it.

Wesley hurried back into the office a moment later. "Let's get Angel downstairs, it'll be easier to deal with him. How's her neck?"

"Bite's pretty much gone," Cordelia explained in an almost bored tone. "Let's chain him to the bed, serves him right I think."

Hours later, Desiree was awake while Angel was chained very securely to the bed. Cordelia fawned over the woman as Desiree disappeared into the bathroom to wash the blood off of her neck. The wounds were already gone, but she still felt slightly out of sorts from the blood that was now missing from her body. She knew that had she not fed before Cordelia called her, she would be much worse off. "Those chains won't hold him," she called from the bathroom. "If he's still Angelus and wants out, he'll get out. If not on his own then definitely with my blood; it's far more potent than human's."

"How did he get to you, anyway? Can't you suck someone to death?" Cordelia asked, pausing when she realized how wrong that sentence sounded in the end. "Never-mind."

Chuckling under her breath and tossing the bloodied paper towel into the trash bin, she felt along her skin to make sure that she hadn't missed any. She could understand why Angel didn't have a mirror in his home, but there were certain things that made it inconvenient. "I can only do so when I am in need of energy, I was not at this point. There are times when I have been able to manipulate someone's energy to turn them to my will, but it was more likely that I would have killed him accidentally if I tried."

Wesley looked over to the woman as she avoided their stares quick easily, pushing the sleeves of her leather jacket up her arms. She didn't want to hurt him, she was hoping that she could put him to sleep in some way related to what she did to them, but Angelus was too strong to be compelled by her voice.

Moving to the kitchen so that she couldn't continue to get the looks of pity from the two, she took a seat at the table and exhaled shakily. Placing her fingers to her lips, she tried to ignore the stirring within her that Angelus had caused when he kissed her. It was not Angel, technically, but it was still the same scent around him, the same voice and body. It was hard not to let it affect her after what Angel had done, pushing her aside so suddenly.

Lifting a hand to where he had bitten, she let out a sigh and lowered her head to rest on the table top. She could hear when Angel woke up, feeling by the steady thumb of his energy that he was Angel once more. Cordelia didn't seem as convinced, but she had clearly been through more before Desiree had shown up.

"Desiree's fine, by the way. Lacking as much blood as she had when she first got here, but you know, I guess that's expected," Cordelia snapped from the other room. Desiree remained still as ice, her eyes steady on the clean table. She didn't want Cordelia using her as some kind of weapon against Angel, even if only verbally, but she needed to speak with him alone and had to remain where she was until then.

Wesley soon stepped past the kitchen, meeting Desiree's eyes as he was passing. He knew that they needed to speak privately and left to return to the office and finished cleaning things up. Soon, leaving Angel chained up to his bed, Cordelia left as well. The brunette looked to her as she passed by and gave her a 'good luck' silently while disappearing around the corner. Desiree smiled faintly at the way Cordelia seemed to have with Angel, knowing that only she would scoff at him and leave him chained up.

"I know you're there, Desiree," Angel called softly from his bedroom area. Lifting herself from the kitchen seat, she tucked in her chair slowly before she made her way around the corner with a steady stride. Angel was looking directly at her face as soon as she came around the divide. "I'm so, so sorry, Desiree."

"Cordelia's right, you know," she began, leaning casually against the wall. "As few times as I'm sure it has been said, she's right. Angelus is more honest than you are, even though he often speaks the truth to hurt, it is honesty all the same." Angel's eyes lowered to the foot of the bed as she stared him down. Pushing away from the wall, she picked up the chair that Wesley had been occupying and sat down slightly closer to the bed. "I think it's time you told me the _full_ truth."

Looking up to her again, Angel felt well and truly scolded.

Beginning with the Gypsy, Angel told her how he had been cursed with a human soul. He told her of hunting down his own kind and how he had met the Slayer at the Hellmouth. Buffy coming into conversation didn't seem to faze her; she wasn't a threat to anyone therefore she wasn't concerned for her safety when it came to slayers. She had been around longer than the slayer line, anyway. Her only reaction was to briefly look away when he told her about his relationship with Buffy and how she had been the one to free Angelus, bringing him true happiness for the first time since he had been given his soul back.

"It's why I treated you the way that I did, when you got your voice back. Wesley and I were talking about it, because of how aware he and Cordelia are about the curse. They were worried when Rebecca first showed up as well. I guess this time it was with good reason," he explained, laughing humourlessly as he looked down at the chains that were crossed over him, keeping him stuck to the bed. "I was worried that if we got too close I would just end up hurting you and everyone else I care about."

Desiree took a moment to think over what he had told her, leaning back in her seat as she tapped at her lip with one long finger. He remembered the strength that had been behind those fingers hours before, when she had been gripping at Angelus's throat. Finally, she lifted herself from the chair and moved over to where Cordelia and stashed the key for the locks. Angel watched in surprise as she unlocked all of the large bolts one by one, pulling some of the chains away until he could sit up without them constricting him.

"I think that you need to realize not everything ends the same after a repeated event," she said softly. "I understand your concern, but…" trailing off, she stared down at the chain that she was still in her hand. "I think I've grown too close to you to be able to give you up so easily," she admitted, looking at him with a sad smile. Leaning over to press a lingering kiss to his forehead, then to his lips, Desiree turned away from him as she dropped the chains back onto his bed.

"Wait," Angel called, pulled his legs free from the last of the restrains. Desiree did as she was told and halted in place, turning to face Angel once more. He didn't hesitate to step right up against her, his hands framing her face gently as he looked down into the beautiful sky blue eyes. He had not seen much of the blue sky during the day; even on the day when he was human he spent most of it with Buffy in his apartment. He imagined that the sky would look like her eyes.

Lifting her hands to cover his, Angel revelled in the warmth coming from her skin. She was healthy again, slightly weakened from Angelus's attack, but otherwise filled with energy. "If you do not think that anything can happen between us, I doubt I can change your mind. But know that I am willing to try."

"The people that I've loved always get hurt because of me, and I remember every moment of it because it's still _me_ who's hurting them. Even with last night, Cordelia and Wesley are already looking at me differently, even though I know it's only temporary, and I know that they're always going to have last night in their heads whenever they get close to me. I tried to kill them, and an innocent woman. But with you, you're not looking at me differently, or reacting to the fact that I tried to tear your throat out last night."

"But at the same time, that wasn't you," she said quickly before he could continue. "You keep saying 'I' did this, 'I' almost did that. But that was not you. There was a completely different energy about you, like there was a duplicate created to look like you while not being the real you. Which came first, the human Liam or the Vampire Angelus? _This_ is you. Your soul makes you the true person." Removing her hands from atop his, she changed their placement to his chest where his un-beating heart lay.

Leaning his head down against hers, Angel exhaled deeply. The cold air fanned her face and made her smile. It was just so like him, the cold. And yet, it was such a contrast to him in many ways. "It's been a very long time since I've known anyone like you; human, demon or otherwise." His thumbs stroked along the pale skin of her cheeks as he barely ghosted his lips across hers. "And I am so selfish, because I don't want to lose that." Claiming her lips with his, Desiree slipped her hands up into the shorts strands of his hair and allowed him to pull her close.

"Oh, God, if you're gunna have sex then just do it already!" Cordelia called from the stairs Angel tried to pull away from the kiss but Desiree made a soft 'uh-uh' sound against his lips and tightened her grip in his hair. She could feel him smile against her lips before he hoisted her up off of her feet, pressing her tightly against him and walking her toward the bed. Cordelia made a faint screeching sound as she darted back up the stairs.

"I think that was cruel," Desiree mumbled against his lips when he pulled away enough.

"Shh," he mumbled back, reclaiming her lips and drawing a humming moan from her. It seemed that her voice affected not his mind, but his soul, because he immediately felt that desire that he had in the club. Before, with Angelus, he hadn't been affected but Angel could feel it every time she made so much as a sound.

Stroking along his cheekbones with the tips of her fingers, Desiree looked into his eyes with deep concentration. "How are you feeling?"

"In control," he assured.

"That's not what I meant, Angel. You lost that control last night it doesn't take an expert to know that you will be thinking on it, again and again. You're blaming yourself, aren't you? It was Rebecca, not you. You did not voluntarily get drugged."

"I don't blame Rebecca," he denied, stroking at the red curls of her hair.

Kissing his lips chastely, she smiled. "Do not blame yourself, either."

"No promises," he grinned back, leaning down to claim her lips as he embraced her tightly in his arms. Neither care about the chains and locks that remained on the bed as they lips moved in sync, Desiree allowing her body to relax fully against Angel's cool one. Allowing herself to truly kiss Angel, not for the sake of feeding as it had been in the past, she could finally let herself selfishly enjoy the moment as her fingers carded through his hair and stroked along his face.

Sighing against his lips, her back arched at the feeling of a large hand sliding along her spine, curving in with the dip of her spine. Biting at the full flesh of his bottom lip, her eyes opened to look into his dark brown ones, bordering on black at the dilated appearance of his pupils. Smirking at the sight, she tugged on his lip gently before releasing it to resume the kiss.

Rolling them until she straddled his stomach, Angel's hands fell to rest on her thighs gently while he let his head fall back. In response to the offering Desiree's teeth and tongue happily found the revealed flesh, pale as night itself, and began to mark it with red from the nips of her teeth before she laved over it with her tongue to sooth.

"We should go join the others," Angel struggled to get out, his hands taut on her thighs. She knew that he was fighting against pushing her away because of the drawn out intimacy and fear of something happening, so she pulled away with only one last soft kiss against his lips.

Offering him a hand, he took it without hesitation this time and let her help to pull him up off the bed. Reaching back he gently slid his hand into her hair to return the feather-light kiss against her lips, the two of them resting calmly with their foreheads together only a moment before they each stepped away from one another and moved to leave his apartment. They weren't sure what steps to take next, so they would simply have to take them slowly.

†

Desiree wasn't normally in the business of scaring humans, especially since she knew so many of them and considered them her family. However, she wasn't opposed to making exceptions.

Standing in the doorway to Rebecca's living room, she watched the fallen star silently, changed and showered after the events that nearly led to Angelus killing her. The woman wasn't aware of her presence, not yet, as she stared at herself in the mirror that covered a large portion of her living room wall.

She was, unsurprisingly, nursing a tumbler of whisky.

With silent steps, Desiree left the alcove of Rebecca's doorway, stepping into the reflection of the mirror she was staring into so intently. As soon as she was in sight, Rebecca let out a strangled gasp and dropped the tumbler, causing the amber liquid inside to spill on her once clean rub as a chip of glass went skittering across the floor.

"That's a waste of good alcohol," Desiree said in form of a greeting, watching as the carpet absorbed the liquid like a sponge, permanently staining it.

"What are you doing here? How'd you get in?" Rebecca demanded, a very distinguishable tremor in her voice.

Smiling, Desiree stepped closer. "I'm not like Angel, honey, I don't need and invitation. As for what I'm doing here, I was thinking of hurting you. Threatening you. Scaring you. But you're already scared, aren't you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side in a show of mocking concern. "Poor little rich girl," Desiree mumbled before leaning forward to that their noses were inches apart.

Looking into the demon's luminous eyes, Rebecca wanted to weep.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why? You nearly plunged the world into chaos and you as _why_?" The volume of Desiree's voice was rising steady, but it wasn't just that she was almost yelling, there seemed to be a ringing that encased her voice and caused Rebecca to cover her ears without consciously thinking on it. "You stupid, self-centered _bitch_. Do not meddle in the world of demons ever again, because if you do I won't be there to save you. I'll let Angelus put your head on a pike."

"Stop!" Rebecca shouted, almost unable to hear her own voice past the high-pitched ringing in her ears.

"I do not like to share, Rebecca; and _Angel is __**mine**_."

With the last word, the full-wall mirror behind Rebecca exploded in a shower of glass and metal, causing the woman to scream. When she opened her eyes, the sound of tinkling glass was all she could hear. The ringing had stopped, and the demon who had been towering over her was gone.


	13. A Song to Sleep at Night

**A Song to Sleep at Night**

Desiree was sleeping when she heard the faintest of knocks on her door, her head lifted tiredly from her bed before she caught a familiar scent that had her rising with a new energy. Nearly flying out from beneath her duvet, she skid along the tiled flooring until she reached the door to her smallish basement apartment and smiled as she threw it open to reveal that same brooding appearance that was almost always present on Angel's face.

"Well, good night," she greeted, getting the faintest of smiles from him in return. He had never appeared at her apartment before, aside from the first time when he had 'stalked' her to the demon club. "Come in," she invited a moment later, stepping aside and opening the door wider to allow him access into her home.

"Thanks," he returned modestly, slipping past her and into her kitchen. Returning the locks into place, Desiree almost laughed at how out of place Angel appeared in her home. It wasn't that it was over fancy or womanly, but he was standing tense and looking around like he feared something was going to jump out and eat him.

Moving up to his side, she copied his stance and gave him a mock serious look. "Is something wrong?"

"What?" he asked in mild surprise, almost flinching back at her unexpected teasing. It was then that he noticed she was only wearing a pair of sleep shorts and a matching top, both in a light peach hue that made her skin appear more rosy than usual. "No, sorry, I just…"

"Cordelia or Wesley; only those two could drive you away," she interrupted. "Sit down, relax, nothing will bite you here," she cooed, placing a gentle hand between his tense shoulder blades and nudging him over to the island of her kitchen. "I don't have blood, but I can offer you coffee or tea."

"No, that's alright," he declined, finally taking a seat as he continued to look around the room. "You have a nice place, not what someone would expect of someone with so much money," he said, glancing over to where she had begun to make herself a tea.

Shrugging her shoulders in reply, she flipped her hair back over her shoulder when it got in her way as she was moving around the kitchen. "I try not to buy what I don't really need. Who needs this huge apartment or house when I'm not usually even in it?" she returned, placing her kettle on the stove before she moved to stand across the island from him, smiling ever so softly. She was leaning forward on her elbows, not even reacting to the cold stone as it touched her skin. "So, who was it?"

"Wesley," Angel answered. "He's still not so convinced that this is a good idea—what we're doing."

Desiree smiled in understanding, moving around to stand behind Angel, wrapping her arms around his torso while her chin fell to rest on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Angel; you have been through more than any other that I had met through my years and you still hold strong. Don't let the fear of your friends deter you. They've become so cautious that I understand their concern, but you still deserve some of your own happiness. I don't know if you'll ever be free of this curse, but I promise as long as I'm here I won't let it control you."

"You can't promise me that," Angel countered, his voice pitched low as he leaned backward against her welcoming warmth.

"No," she agreed quietly, turning her face into his hair to kiss his temple. "But I will do everything within my power to make it so." She only released him when the kettle on the stove screamed loudly through the room, causing them both to tense at the irritating sound. Angel watched as Desiree move fluidly about her home, even though it was clear that he had woken her up by coming.

"What are you all up to, anyway?"

"Ever heard of Wolfram and Hart?" he asked in return, faintly smiling in amusement at the sneer that came to her lips at the name. "Yea, I think that's the popular reaction. Anyway, we've been trying to track down a witness against them but we haven't been able to get his location down. This kid is pretty good at hiding, which is good for his survival but bad for us trying to get a hold of him."

"Does he want to testify?"

"I doubt it," Angel laughed humourlessly.

Cocking her head slightly to the side, Desiree could see that the stress he had been under had left him worn down. If he was here with her than he clearly didn't have anything else to do for the night, so it would be an excellent time to get his mind off of the young man he needed to fine.

"What could take your mind off of it?" she finally asked, leaning across the island to get a better look into his eyes. Angel seemed slightly surprised at her words, but all she did was continue to smile at him as she waited for his answer. "We could go out; since you're only able to at night," she offered calmly, but Angel shook his head.

"No, I woke you up coming here. I won't make you get dressed and ready for me," he denied, reaching forward to catch a curl of red hair that had slipped over her shoulder. "Besides, you seem comfortable."

Wearing a pair of simple cotton shorts and a matching top was indeed comfortable, but she liked most that she didn't have to think on making herself pretty for him. Angel had seen her at her worst already, so it was a reprieve to just be as she was without dolling up, as Cordelia had called it. "And you seem quite _un_comfortable," she countered smartly.

Angel looked ready to deny it, but Desiree started up again before he had the chance.

"Nope, we're staying in and you're taking your mind off of those evil, mortal lawyers." Moving around the island, Desiree helped Angel to shuck out of his leather jacket, hanging it over the back of a nearby chair, before she tugged on his hand to guide him over to her modest living room, the embers in the fire still glowing. Angel took a brief moment in passing to stare at the large collections of books that sat on shelves that covered an entire wall.

"Are those all books on the supernatural?" he asked once she had led him to sit down, briefly glancing in the direction of the old paperbacks.

"Yes—well, most of them. Every now and again I've been given regular, mortal books that people thought I would enjoy, but when I've lived through history, know about real fantasy, and don't care much for science fiction, there's not much else to grasp onto. I'm sure you understand that," she finished, looking into his eyes. They darkness of the room and deep shadows caused by the fireplace made them look black from the angle she was sitting.

"I find one worth reading every now and then," he countered with a small, amused smile. It was easy to forget that she was older than him, that she had been around before man had overrun the Earth. "Why don't you tell me about the dawn of time," he offered instead, seeing her blue eyes brighten slightly as her mind wandered briefly back to the time he mentioned.

"It was…peaceful, for me and my sisters," she answered quietly, "We had our own little island, with magic sealing it from outsiders that we didn't call onto the island ourselves. For so many decades we lived away from the rest of the world, even as it grew around us. I remember the first time we saw a mortal man, he had fallen overboard from his boat and pulled himself onto our island. He was near death, and that weakened his connection to the mortal world, letting him slip through our magic."

Angel listened with apt attention, watching her lips as she spoke, smiled and frowned. "He thought we were goddesses, come to take him away. My sister wanted to keep him as a pet," she added in after a moment, her eyes sparkling with prior mischief. "But he was too far gone, even we couldn't save him. We sung him to sleep, and he never woke up. But it opened up to the curiosity about the outside world."

"That was when all those myths started about Sirens luring men on ships," he thought aloud.

Humming in acknowledgement, Desiree reached forward to take his hand and began tracing her nails along his palm. "We would sneak onto their ships at night, whenever they were near the island. Whenever they woke up we would sing them back to sleep." As she was speaking about her past life, she stroked along his hand and massaged the broad palm.

"Could you sing for me?" Angel asked before he was able to catch himself, looking shocked at his own words as Desiree just raised an eyebrow at him in amusement. "I just…I meant-"

"What should I sing?" she interrupted, reaching a hand up to run her nails along his cheekbone, following it up to his temple before she allowed herself the curiosity to delve her fingers into his styled hair. The locks were stuck together with product, but she was still able to tell that the strands would be soft and healthy, even with the body technically dead.

"What would you have sung to those sailors?"

"Do you want me to put you to sleep, Angel?" she teased softly, searching those dark eyes to try and figure out what he was thinking. "With a soul, you're more susceptible to my voice. I would eventually put you to sleep."

"Well…I've had a long day. A nap wouldn't hurt," Angel teased right back, using the hand that she was holding his to draw her closer to him, nearly having her sit in his lap. Humming a sound of contemplation, the woman before him shifted even closer until she was almost leaning over him, leaving him to tip his head back so he could keep eye contact.

Without the woman even making a sound, Angel began to feel that same strange tug that he had when she was in the demon club. He realized unconsciously that her eyes had the same effect of her voice, tugging on his attentions. It made him faintly drowsy already, looking into the entrancing blue. Her nails continued the soft, addictive strokes through his hair, causing his eyes to droop just slightly. They snapped back open, however, when he heard her begin to hum so faintly that it was nearly silent.

The sound grew stronger until foreign, ancient words began to pass her lips. The reassuring, soothing sound was just as she had called it. A lullaby. Angel knew that her words must have been in the tongue of her own kind, a language only she and her sisters would understand. Angel's skull began to lean, pressing back on her hand rather heavily. It was as though he didn't have the strength to keep his head up anymore.

Desiree watched Angel's expression as she sang. She could understand why women were so attracted to him, as he really did have the face of an angel. There was beauty in his features, strong but yet so gentle when he was calm. As she lulled him to sleep there was that same gentleness, one that was so rare on his usually serious face. Continuing to hum, Desiree leaned forward to press the ghost of a kiss across his lips, just as he fell into a dreamless sleep.

†

"I don't know how I feel about you coming with us," Angel was saying as he pulled his sword out of the weapons vault, looking over to where Desiree was reclined on the end of the bed, the length of her body leaving her feet hanging over the side as her head was propped up on her fist, her eyes on him. "I mean, I know that you can fight for yourself and everything, but-"

"You're reminded of Buffy?" she offered, seeing that Angel was nearly choking on the words. Offering the faintest of smiles as her assurance, she let her head fall from where it had been resting on her first, cracking the sore muscles in her neck and, accidentally, exposing the pale flesh of her throat that covered her jugular in the process. Angel's eyes snapped down to the revealed weak point before he looked away and concentrated on re-locking the vault. "If it'll make you feel better I can stay here, keep Cordelia company…let you and Wesley have your manly time as you save another from the crippling fate of Wolfram and Hart."

Smiling against his better judgement, just faintly, he moved over to where Desiree was still reclined, but she wasn't leaning her head on her fist anymore and instead was playing with the blankets in a bored manner. "I'd like for you to stay here. The longer you stay off of their radar the better."

Huffing in near annoyance Desiree rolled onto her back so that she was looking up at Angel's imposing form, his dark eyes watching her intently. Reaching down to skim his fingers over her taut stomach, Angel bent down enough to press a gentle kiss against her forehead, feeling her exhale softly against his neck. "Be careful," she breathed out a moment later, looking up with intense blue eyes when he pulled away, feeling warmth on his skin from the contact he had made with hers.

"I promise," he retorted, offering her a hand just as she had done not too long ago and easily pulling her to her feet. "Don't kill Cordelia while we're away," he added on, getting a snort of amusement from her before she nodded her head in sarcastic obedience.

Desiree had become quite relaxed around their group since the event in which Angelus made an appearance, nearly getting Rebecca and herself killed in the process. She would spend time with Cordelia since the other woman was surrounded by only men most of the time, and Cordelia loved that Desiree had a huge bank account and would buy her things. Angel and Wesley, however, refused to take any donations she offered to them to update their computer, office building or anything that would be considered charity. Cordelia wasn't pleased about this, but Desiree respected their wishes and continued to cater to the brunette's wishes alone, though not too much. There was one point that she tried to get Desiree to move closer but there was a reluctance to leave behind her human family after being separated for so long. She had come to spend some nights over with the rest of them, but not to the point where she had moved in with Angel or Cordelia.

Wearing a pair of tight black pants and a sleeveless deep red turtleneck, Angel had trouble not touching the bared skin of her arms since she had arrived at sunset, returning from her patrols. Her hair was pulled back into a tie at the back of her skull, the long curls of red falling down her back like blood, slightly lighter than the red of her shirt. He could tell that she had fed recently as well with the vibrancy of her eyes, lacking the strong tone of makeup that she would usually wear and instead leaving her beauty natural.

There was a strange stirring of jealousy in his gut when he remembered what she looked like when he had seen her at the Demon Club, touching the men and women so intimately.

"We won't be gone for too long, and I still need to talk to the kid once we get back here," Angel assured as he played with a thick curl of hair that had parted from the rest, pulling it over her shoulder to see it better.

"Fine, have fun killing demons without me," she sighed dramatically, leaning against his side. "Make sure Cordelia's vision doesn't go to waste, or she'll be less than happy," she added on a moment later, pressing a kiss against the smooth skin of his cheek. Angel winced at the thought of Cordelia's complaining and this only made Desiree laugh harder as she tugged on his arm to guide him toward the elevator. Angel pulled her to a stop just before opening the gates to kiss her properly, getting a vibrant smile in return before they decided they had delayed long enough and stepped into the elevator to meet Wesley in the office.

Cordelia looked like she was falling asleep at the desk while Wesley was patiently reading on the couch, however both looked up as soon as they stepped out of Angel's office.

"Ready?" Angel asked as he turned his attention to the other man, Desiree moving aside so Angel could move toward the door.

"You're not going with?" Cordelia asked in surprise, pointing over at Desiree when the woman made no move to follow her…boyfriend? Lover? Cordelia wasn't quite sure what they were.

"I've been put on vampire house arrest," she answered teasingly.

"Staying off the radar of Wolfram and Hart would be best," Wesley pointed out as he collected his bag, which held some weapons that he could use, and the book containing the information on their demon.

"My thoughts exactly. We'll be back soon," Angel commented before he seemed to breeze right out the door, his long black coat trailing behind him like a deep shadow. Desiree watched him go before nodding her head to Wesley, silently wishing him luck.

"I used to think he was so hot," Cordelia said out of the blue, still sitting on the couch. She was looking out to the door, where the men had just left.

"Wesley?" Desiree asked with a small frown. The look that came to Cordelia's face was comical, but the Siren knew better than to laugh in the face of someone with the brunette's attitude. "So, Angel then?" she asked instead, finding herself smiling.

"When he first showed up in Sunnydale, he was so hot. He was the dark, mysterious stranger. Of course, then he tried to kill everyone, so it wasn't so much fun after that," she explained, her facial expressions changing from nostalgic to disturbed. "Of course, you now realize what that is like, first hand."

"Don't bring it up to him, please?" Desire requested calmly as she moved over to sit with Cordelia. "He feels bad enough and it's not even his fault. I highly doubt he asked to be drugged so that Angelus could be set free."

Making a small huffing sound, Cordelia nodded her head begrudgingly. As much as she wanted to point it out how dangerous Angel was being, even she didn't want to take away his small amount of happiness.


	14. A Rite of Strength

**A Rite of Strength**

"This guy's never gunna do it," Cordelia said to break the silence in the office. Angel had disappeared into his office with the adolescent that was witnessed against Wolfram and Hart's client, the night before, and neither was yet to emerge. However, judging by the loud voices and bang every now and again they were still just as lively as when the first disappeared behind the door. "What a waste of a good vision."

Desiree was sitting behind Cordelia's desk while Wesley tried to catch some sleep on the couch, Cordelia the only one still up and moving.

"It's going that badly?" Wesley asked in a sleepy voice, barely audible. Cordelia would know, as she had been eavesdropping most of the time they were inside. Desiree could hear them no problem, but she didn't want to have Cordelia demanding an update every five minutes, so she kept that fact to herself.

"I knew it when you brought him in last night. Someone with that much body art is gunna have a different definition of civic duty."

"I have tattoos," Desiree spoke up finally, drawing the attention of both people in the room as they look at her in surprise. "What?" she asked in genuine confusion. "Do you know how long I've been alive? Tattoos were once a rite of passage, or a sign of strength or wisdom. It wasn't always gang or thug related," she explained easily, slightly regretting telling them.

"Where?" Cordelia finally asked, thinking back to the times that she had seen Desiree's bare skin. She didn't have any on her arms or lower legs, or her midriff.

"I'm not telling you after that reaction," Desiree retorted as she pointed at the brunette before glancing over to the office when Angel's voice rose a bit higher as he was trying to get a specific point across.

Wesley, trying to get the discussion back on track, looked up at Cordelia. "You think he'll stay quiet even after we saved his life?"

"When was the last time you wrote a thank-you card?"

Sitting up and pushing his coat off of him, realizing that Cordelia's pacing and fretting would not let him sleep, Wesley stretched out his tired limbs. "Well, I have faith in Angel. If anyone can convince him to testify," he let his words trail off in favour of rubbing tiredly at his face. Desiree felt pity for the man, knowing that he had been up all night with Angel and hadn't gotten a lick of sleep since they got back in the early morning hours when it was still dark outside.

Cordelia sighed as her pacing continued, Desiree's ever watchful eyes following her. "Wesley, you don't change a guy like that. In fact, generally speaking, you don't change a guy. What you see if what you get. Scratch the surface and what do you find? More surface." Cordelia's rant drew both Wesley and Desiree to look at her strangely.

"One could have said that about Angel," Wesley protested as he slipped on his glasses.

"That's a lot of hate for someone so young," Desiree added in, looking at Cordelia closely. The brunette turned to give the demon the stink eye, but chose to ignore her.

"He was cursed by gypsies," Cordelia reminded Wesley instead, her back facing Desiree. "What's Angel gunna do? Drag a bunch of them in here to shove a soul down this guy's throat?"

"He may be a ruffian, but he's already got a soul. Therefore, somewhere deep down inside is an urge to do what's right," Wesley said to Cordelia's claim.

"'Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey'," Desiree quoted as she leaned back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other as her fingers laced across her stomach. The posture was composed but relaxed at the same time, her red hair falling back over her shoulders from her reclined stance and exposing the long, pale expanse of her throat.

Wesley turned to point at her from where he was getting his coffee. "O'Donohue," he stated, recognizing the quote as one from John O'Donohue. Desiree just smiled, not saying anything more. She didn't have a chance to, either, as the young man took that chance to step out of Angel's office.

"No way, I'm gone," he was saying, but he only made it two steps before Angel had grabbed the back of his shirt collar and forcibly dragged the man back inside. They could all hear when he directed him to shut up and sit down, leaving them all silent after their previous discussion about having a soul.

"I guess you're right, Wesley. He's just like the Dalai Lama," Cordelia said first. Desiree couldn't stop herself from snickering at the woman's words as she looked down, hiding her face, while Wesley looked somewhat sheepish at the statement. Cordelia, however, looked pleased with herself that she had gotten the kind demon amongst them to laugh, as it was hard to do. It was easy to make Desiree smile, as she seemed to do most of the time anyway, but it was significantly more difficult to get a real laugh.

Thankfully, hours later saw to Angel taking the man to the courthouse for his testimony, right on time. Having him gone immediately brought a calm back to the office, as Cordelia stopped ranting and pacing about. Desiree, since she had been there all night, had to leave as well and therefore left a fussy Cordelia who had to stay behind and handle the phone and actual work.

Desiree was welcomed back at the restaurant by Anthony as soon as she stepped inside, Savannah back at home with their newborn baby, Hope. "How's daddy life?" she asked as soon as she came in, smiling at the sight of shadows under Anthony's eyes and a distinct scowl that softened at the mention of his new role.

"Heaven and Hell in a hand basket," he answered bluntly, "I don't know how Annah does it, but she's super woman."

"That she is," Desiree agreed immediately. She had been there when the woman was in labor and she found herself relieved that she had never had kids, if the screams of absolute agony were anything to go by. She had helped to soothe her with quiet singing, but there was only so much she could do when pain was a natural thing during childbirth.

"You looked horrified," Anthony teased, remembering Desiree's started expression when Savannah had screamed on the drive to the hospital, sounding like a dying banshee.

"She sounded like she was dying, not creating life," Desiree pointed out, "And you nearly crashed the car when she screamed, remember?"

"Yea, yea. So, how's your vampire lover?"

"He's not my lover, and he's just fine. They're just finishing up with a case, so I'm assuming he's going to tuck down for a while. He's been going against Wolfram and Hart lately, so he's been stressing out quite a bit."

Anthony made a face of disgust at the mention of the lawyers. "I hate those guys. They bring nothing but pain and leave death in their wake."

Nodding her head in agreement, Desiree scowled. Anthony was right, and it only made her concern for Angel grow. If Wolfram and Hart took Angel to be too much of a liability, they would more than likely target him. She didn't doubt that he could handle himself, but they knew he was a vampire and he was strong. They could find someone to match that so they could kill him and remove the thorn that had stabbed into their side.

"He's on their radar," Anthony said when he took notice of Desiree's expression.

"He's dead in the center of it," she corrected. "I'm going to go and change before I go on a patrol."

Before Anthony had time to speak up to her again, Desiree had stepped right back out of the restaurant to go to her apartment. Trying to push her concerns for Angel out of her mind, she continued on with her own affairs until night had fallen. Not needing to feed, she spent the long hours walking the building rooftops, enjoying the clear night. It was almost a full moon, bringing with it a beautiful silvery appearance.

She may not love cities, as she had grown up on an untouched island and lived there most of her early life, but she could find the beauty in it every now and then.

Knowing that most people were asleep anyway, Desiree began to sing hauntingly soft as she stopped on the corner of a roof. She had gotten quite far from her apartment at that point and sunrise was only a few short hours away. It was at the edge of her territory, she realized, and made sure not to stray much farther unless she pissed off a demon accidentally.

"Far from home, little one."

Glancing back, Desiree wanted to huff in annoyance at the appearance of Skylar, the demon who had taken her voice. She didn't want to let him know just how much he got to her and instead turned her back on him again, pointedly ignoring him.

"Come now, I'm only being civil."

"Go be civil to someone who cares, otherwise go and crawl back into whatever hole you came out of," Desiree snapped, her eyes beginning to glow through the darkness. Skylar held up his hands in a sign of surrender, but Desiree didn't want to deal with him either way and turned to leave. Her concentration and moment of peace was broken, having her lose her passion for singing that night.

"I just wanted to come and warn you, give a heads up," Skylar called to her, stopping the Siren in her tracks. Grinding her teeth together as she tried to force herself to keep walking, the woman turned to face him again when she wasn't able to push away her curiosity.

"What?"

Skylar looked smug as he tucked his hands into his pockets, looking far too relaxed when standing in front of a woman who dearly wanted to kill him. "It's just your vampire—Angel, right?—well, I hear he angered the wrong people."

Desiree's heart seemed to stop as she winced. "Wolfram and Hart."

"Those are the people," Skylar confirmed with a teasing smirk. Desiree took a couple of steps forward, closing the gap between the faster than Skylar was prepared for, and grabbed the man's jacket before he could step back to protect himself. "I'm doing you a favour, don't forget," he ground out as he looked into her terrifyingly narrow eyes. They looked entirely demonic with their intensity, revealing all of her anger toward him.

"You tread on thin ice," Desiree hissed out, lifting Skylar off of his feet to force him to look into her eyes properly.

"I don't know who, but they hired someone to take out Angel," Skylar explained in a tight voice, not liking that he was at such a disadvantage. It wasn't as though he made any mistakes in believing he could stand in a fight against Desiree, but she was just one of those rare creatures that were too hard to resist.

Glaring at him and staring him down, Desiree gauged that he was telling the truth and roughly deposited him back on his feet.

"I know where to find you, Aatxe, don't forget that."

Dropping from the rooftop, Desiree ran back to her apartment on foot. Snatching her phone as soon as she was inside, the dialed Cordelia's number first. If someone was after Angel, they would be smart enough not to attack him directly. Pacing the length of her kitchen, the Siren listened to the phone ring out before she gave up and called the office instead, but met with the same results.

"Damn it," she swore softly before she moved to her room to get changed.

As Cordelia's place was on the way to the office, Desiree stopped there first. Fixing her leather jacket to pull her hair out of the back of it, the woman strode through the outside hall that led to Cordelia's door with a quick stride. Her movements faltered briefly when she saw that the door was already open. Pushing the door open the rest of the way, the redhead looked around quickly and immediately saw brief signs of a struggle.

"Cordelia?" she called, stepping in on near silent feet.

Taking one look to the left and she immediately saw the body lying on the floor, rushing for it in the next instant. Lying on her side, Cordelia was unconscious from a blow to the face, if her bruised cheek was anything to go by. Reaching down to check that she was okay for everything other than the bruise, Desiree was relieved to see that the single blow to the cheekbone was all there was.

"Wesley!" Cordelia shouted suddenly, jerked upright at the feel of hands on her. "Desiree? Desiree! Where's Wesley? He was here—oh, but _she_ was here!" Blinking in surprise as Cordelia grabbed onto her arms for support, the Siren tried to follow along with what she was saying. "We have to warn Angel. Is Wesley okay?"

"Cordelia, Wesley isn't here," Desiree answered after a moment. "Who is _she_?"

"Faith," Cordelia choked out brokenly as Desiree helped her to move up from the floor to instead sitting on the chair close by at her dining room table. "She…she was a slayer, like Buffy, but she went crazy and killed people, then went into a coma, but now she's back and she's after Angel."

"Wolfram and Hart hired her, didn't they?"

"With that girl, all it took was a nudge," Cordelia retorted in a strained voice.

"Cordelia!" Angel's voice called from the front entrance; Desiree had left the door open and Angel must have reached the same conclusion that she had. Cordelia called back to the vampire as Desiree lifted her head to check on how badly her cheek was bruised. It was only red with a faint trace of purple, but it was starting to swell and the colour was definitely deepen. "Desiree—Cordelia? Are you okay?"

Angel seemed momentarily taken aback at the sight of not only Desiree present, but Cordelia pretty badly bruised.

"Faith has Wesley!" Cordelia nearly shrieked, truly beginning to panic as she thought past her own bruises to the missing friend that had badly wounded Faith's mental state.

"Calm down, Cordelia, we'll get him back," Desiree soothed the frightened woman, reaching out to lay a hand on her arm. It allowed her to access Cordelia's frayed and frightened energy to manipulate it into a calmer state. Thankfully, Cordelia did calm down, taking in a calming breath and letting her trembling reduce itself steadily.

Angel watched the interaction, realizing what Desiree was doing without even having to look at the woman. He had felt her power, the manipulation of someone's energy—he knew that in such a situation, she would want Cordelia as level-headed as she could get, and calming her down was the best way to do that. "Cordelia, you've been tracking Faith's movements, do you know where she might go?" he asked once the brunette had stopped shaking.

"Hold on, can someone please explain to me what is going on? How are there two slayers?" Desiree interrupted, looking back at Angel with a somewhat annoyed look in her eyes. As a demon, Desiree was technically in danger when Slayers were involved, and one like Faith that had fallen off the rails wouldn't care that Desiree had humanity within her. Angel even believed that she had a soul. It wouldn't be all that surprising, since Desiree was clearly different than most demons.

Sharing a glance with Cordelia, they silently agree that it was time Desiree learned about Faith and Buffy defying death.

"Let's go sit in the living room," Cordelia proposed, getting onto somewhat unsteady feet. Desiree quickly supported her and guided the frailer woman away from the chair she'd been sitting on. Angel stepped aside to let them pass before letting out a long sigh. He'd been foolish to think that Faith wouldn't go after his friends as well.

Watching Desiree seat Cordelia down on the couch, asking her how her head felt, he could only hope that the redheaded Siren wasn't pulled into the fray as well.


End file.
